Kyoto in February

Well well, 2026 is going to be a banger, isn’t it? But the less I say about all that, the better, so I will restrain myself.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop, a kissa, called Ashijima Coffee (喫茶葦島). It’s a quiet, almost living room space on the top floor of a five story building in Central Kyoto. The windows in this modern cafe are covered in white paper like that used in traditional paper Shoji screens. Soft, diffused light, yet closed to the outside, it’s like a cocoon, a private space, far above the ground. 

There are wire sculptures around the room, evoking rock and jazz musicians, yet the only music is a solo violin, playing faintly in the background.

The barista pours water from a silver pitcher, ever so slowly, into the coffee filter below – this is Kyoto style coffee - pour over coffee, your choice of freshly roasted beans, ground to order. Espresso and lattes exist of course - there are no lack of Starbucks in Japan, and some wonderfully designed ones, too – but the individual pour over is the standard.

I’m here, waiting for my film to be developed around the corner. One hour processing for color negative film still exists. When they’re ready, I’ll take the negatives home and scan them, then edit on my Mac. It takes some work to get a nice image out of these negatives, but I have the process down pretty well by now.

I’m still shooting digital mostly – it’s more immediate, and sharper. When it counts, I’m shooting digital. But film is a slower, more peaceful experience. And the color can be really sumptuous, like this photo of a different café from today's roll of film:

Homage to Arashiyama

Recently, I’ve been printing photos for my Arashiyama exhibition in May. It's part of the annual month-long Kyotographie KG+ international photography festival that takes over Kyoto, from April 18 through May 17. My partner Lana is also doing a show of her photography. Please come if you're in the vicinity.

I really do enjoy the printing process, and I love seeing my work on large pieces of paper. I made a run of postcards too, and a large poster for the gallery window. It’s always exciting to unroll a photo that is several feet wide.

Making a postcard forces you to confront – just what are you showing, and why? The iterative process of printmaking also forces you to again, evaluate these images – they always change as time passes -  months after shooting and posting online. It’s always been like this, but after almost 25 years of photo printing I’d like to think I have it more dialed in now. It’s still three months until the exhibition though, plenty of time to change my mind again and again – as long as the paper and ink hold out.

The idea of this Arashiyama exhibition is that its an expansion of my calendar. I still have a few left if you want one… kind of like what I did with the Empty Kyoto book 2 years ago.

Will I make another book? Not of Arashiyama, but I’m thinking about a short run of… not a ‘zine exactly, something with slightly higher production values like my calendar, to go along with the exhibition. But it’s on the back burner at the moment…

2027 marks 25 years of my Picture of the Day daily photography website. So next year I’m considering having a retrospective exhibition. In Kyoto of course, but perhaps we can have one in Hermosa Beach as well. Maybe a book of the past 25 years ought to be the next project.

In the meantime, I hope you can cultivate your inner peace, your inner strength – to overwhelm the cruelty and assholery trying to take over our lives – with kindness, caring, and compassion. That’s our defense, our superpower over evil!

I don’t mean to sound trite, but this is the way, the Japanese way. Always show empathy. Always show respect. For everything and everyone.

Empathy is their kryptonite. 
Compassion is their kryptonite. 
Love is their kryptonite.
We will persevere.

Peace & Love, like we used to say...
Daniel