William Corey, the Japanese garden photographer who is known for his unique large format images (8x20 transparency in a modified banquet camera), passed away April 1st , 2008. He was my husband or partner of the last 18 years. I am not a photographer, but being with him and working with him for the last 18 years taught me tremendous things. Not about technical things, but more about his feeling toward life.
Taking pictures was a medium for him to search himself about life. He loved Japan and especially Kyoto. He loved the interaction of man and nature. He found the beauty in it. He often told me that "taking a picture is easy, but to find the spot exactly the gardner was thinking to sit to see the view is difficult part." He spent many days searching for the spot, and often he would go back to the same temple over and over. It seemed his approach was a spiral going toward the center.
He often laughed about his subject, that he was not choosing an easy subject for the Westen world to understand. His pictures are not a document of Japanese garden or temple in Kyoto. He wanted people to think or have some awareness for themselves or about life. You often find in his pictures that the picture is of himself. In some pictures you may feel discomfort; he encouraged that. His signature photo is with the pole or syouji screen in the middle of picture...he wanted give you the choice to see the other side.
He left probably 2000 undeveloped negatives--of course half of them are useless. I have decided to continue to promote his life work, and to keep showing new images from these undeveloped negatives. His pictures were loved by so many people and moved so many people's hearts. His life was perhaps short, but it was very rich.
I have been going through his old negatives of Japanese gardens, gardens of Italy, and gardens of Innisfree. It is quite expensive to develop and produce the images and prints in the highest of quality and reproduction as we do.
I will keep promoting new imagery and would love to share these beautiful images William captured, and hope that you find some peace, calm, and serenity from these images.
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