The best photographs capture something that is already disappearing. Mono no aware teaches: (1) photograph the moment, not the subject — the light at this specific hour, the expression at this specific second, the configuration of people and place that will never recur, (2) let some moments go un-photographed — the act of reaching for the camera can pull you out of the experience it is meant to preserve, and (3) print your photographs — a printed photo ages, fades, curls. That ageing is wabi-sabi. It is also mono no aware.

Going Deeper

Explore this concept further in The Japanese Art of Mono no Aware by Takeshi Mori.

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