Japan traveling book

During the lockdown, Alberto Mora recollected old traveling images, created small books to share with his friends so they could travel at least with their eyes and imagination. Here an excerpt from the trip to Japan and some thoughts about creation in isolation.

Photography: Alberto Mora

How has been your creative process during isolation?

The “first” lockdown in Italy (March- April 2020) was pretty intense: we were asked to stay at home, with limited access to the outside world, except for grocery and pharmacy.

I thought about how to turn this unusual amount of time at home into something good for me.

It came to my mind the thousands of images taken during my previous trips ( Japan, South Africa, Vietnam, just to name some countries I traveled to before Covid-19 pandemic) that I had storage in a hard drive, and I thought it was a good time to finally organize them.

While doing so, I found myself living those amazing moments of traveling with friends again so I decided to make small books, with texts and a selection of images, and to share it with my friends via email, hoping that they could have a break from the isolation, and travel with eyes and mind to places we eventually will travel to again.

This one in particular is about a trip to Japan I made back in August 2016. Most of the images were shot with a Fujica film camera, using a 55mm lens. It was the very first long trip I made with a film camera only. When working with film you have to think carefully about every image, you don’t want to lose shots and the result might be disappointing, but I like the approach to it.

Which benefits have you found while spending time alone for creation?

It was a way to detach from reality, and being focused on doing something fulfilling.

Working in the creative industry is engaging but also exhausting because there are moments where you work a lot and the only thing you want to do with your spare time is to go out or watch something on Netflix. So I was very happy to have finally time at night or during the weekend for myself and for the projects I had been postponing for a while. It was one of the most creative times of my life, to be honest. I also made paintings and collages which is something I was not doing since… I don’t even remember when! It was the perfect time to experiment without timing or client pressure. I had also time to make researches on actual books I had bought and never had the chance to open or go through them properly.

Have your perception changed while being in the “inside world/home”? How?

Definitively. I think that the last year, especially during the lockdown, was a very important moment for everybody. I had this rollercoaster of emotions, feeling scared for the pandemic but also grateful to having the chance to slow down and think about what really matters and having time to finally re-connect with some creative skills of my career I had left in a closet for a long time. Taking a look back at last year, I can say it was a turning point from a creative experience point of view.