Sunlanders by Sean Lotman

Sean Lotman’s photographs of Japan immerse us in his imagination and interpretation of reality in a land he has come to call home. His photographs encapsulate his existence in Japan, as a person who is intrinsically bound to his surroundings, yet still exists as a foreigner. His photographs are at times psychedelic, transposing what he sees to photographs as a maelstrom of mystery and wonder.

Sunlanders is not a static document of Japan. Nor is it a journal or contest of image making.

Rather, it is an exploration of existence, a dive in to a world unknown in suspended reality, imbued in colour and fascination.

Lotman is a master printer. Each image in the book has been reproduced from carefully hand printed C-Type prints in the darkroom. Following the process of making photographs from the moment of capture to the final print has allowed Lotman to instil his own subjective reality in to physical images.

“[Lotman’s] photographs made me think of a dancer’s world, where life and death co-exist on a coin dropping, heads or tails, as it gravitates toward its destiny. His photograph reflect that mysterious moment when life becomes death, and death becomes life”.

- Yamaguchi Nahoko

"Over the span of five years, Sean Lotman traveled all over Japan's many islands documenting the Far East archipelago not as it is at this present moment, but as a temporal reality fused with ethereal phenomena. His resulting photo book, Sunlanders, is thus not a historical document, but a surreal conception of society. It's a way of mystifying banal stereotypes, slipping away into a parallel universe of vivid colors, standstill environments, and dreamy manifestations."

- The Eye of Photography

“The overall impression is one of a playfully articulated reality; Lotman takes the world around him as a rough draft, pushing and pulling the parts out of it that he finds the most pleasing."

- Katherine Oktober Matthews, GUP Magazine