‘The Turtle and the Monk’ is a real life fairy tale in the style of ‘Le petit prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry about my search for the golden turtle Kami, the goddess of the Kamogawa river. The project consists of photographs of the remaning elements of nature, illustrations of the people I meet during my journey, ancient hand painted photographs and gyotaku prints of different animals. Tying everything together is a beautiful written story of my journey, in which the people I met along the way tell me the history of the Kamogawa river and their visions of its future. 

This project will have different storylines, small and big, that come together to tell the whole story. A fundamental part of the project is the history of the Kamogawa river but relevant current events in Japan also play an important role.

‘The Turtle and the Monk’ is about how we try to control nature in our efforts to create a perfect society, often without realising the potentially disastrous consequences.