“When one falls asleep, having gathered the material of the day, one tears it up and recombines it, and dreams by one’s own light. In doing so, one becomes Creator.”
— The Upanishads
Influenced by the spirit of Japanese Ukiyo-e masters like Utagawa Hiroshige and Hokusai, Shepard embraces a practice of wandering freely without a specific purpose. This approach allows him to merge conscious and unconscious sensitivities, resulting in works that are not strict representations of a place but rather evocations of their experience.
Walking with a camera, he gathers fragments: hundreds of quick images of whatever catches his eye. These moments are later intricately cut, layered, and reassembled in Photoshop to form a singular image that is both fractured and whole—what he calls the omni-jective view of memory: many perspectives, one vision.
The prints were produced in collaboration with master printer Mitsuhiro Matsudaira at Atelier Matsudaira in Tokyo, using exquisite dai ōban-sized ( 34.5 x 45.5 cm) sheets of washi made by Ichibei Iwano, a ninth-generation washi maker and designated Ningen Kokuhō (Living National Treasure) of Japan. This rare washi, once used by Edo-era artists like Hokusai, lends historical resonance to Shepard’s contemporary process.
