Melting Away is a photographic series born from my everyday view of London as seen from the upper deck of its iconic double‑decker buses. Each time I witness the ever‑shifting landscape—its cultures, neighborhoods, and people—I find myself asking, “Are we truly as divided as we think?”
At the origin of this series lies my own Eastern way of thinking: that everything is in constant flux, perpetually blending and transforming. Yet after moving to the UK, meeting people of diverse backgrounds, and exchanging thoughts with them, I was struck by their openness and suppleness of heart. Paradoxically, it was here—rather than in Japan—that I came to feel what I would describe as a deeply “Japanese” sensibility.
Contrary to the stereotype, Britain holds a culture of respect and attentiveness that goes beyond expectations. As an Asian woman, I have rarely experienced overt discrimination; even when my English falters, people genuinely listen and make the effort to communicate. Cars give way, strangers readily extend a helping hand. Of course, there are moments of unconscious bias, poor traffic manners, and frustrating slowness in communication. The class system still lingers, though often in hollow form. Yet none of these realities can be generalized—kindness, loneliness, contradictions: all coexist as equally true.
From the bus window, no two moments are ever the same, even along the same route. A sleek financial district gives way to a community garden overflowing with wildflowers; suddenly, I am immersed in an immigrant neighborhood alive with the scent of spices and a chorus of foreign languages, only to pass back into quiet Georgian terraces. The people commute, and this ceaseless transformation is not chaos but coexistence itself.
To photograph is, above all, to look closely—to see the world so that viewers might re‑encounter what was already there through the artist’s gaze. I believe that within photographs there must remain an open space, a margin into which the viewer can project their own emotions and memories. It is this very openness that constitutes the beauty of photography. On the moving stage of the bus, I quietly observe these “scenes of mingling.” While most passengers focus on their phones or tasks to be done “efficiently,” attending to the passing scenery with full presence—refusing to let the moment slip away—feels close to an act of philosophy. Though it requires effort, photographing in this way—discovering the new within the familiar, feeling despair and hope alike—becomes a way of preserving the world truthfully.
This series is not an attempt to emphasize division. Rather, it gently witnesses and records how people are already, often unknowingly, melting into one another and living together.
When we choose to see only what we wish to see, divisions appear. But when we truly attend to what is visible, the boundaries dissolve. I do not aim to prove anything—only to suggest that perhaps, unnoticed, we already live more softly, more interwoven than we think.
These are photographic works intended to be presented as a group of framed photographs. The current frame sizes are provisional and can be adjusted as needed.
