Yuga Kurita
Born in Japan’s Saitama prefecture in 1971, Yuga Kurita spent years as a young adult backpacking throughout the world. He soon formed a bond with India and immersed himself in spiritual meditation, fasting, and enjoyed deep cultural connections. After returning to Japan Yuga spent years expressing his creativity through music with an Indian instrument know as the Sitar, synthesizers, and Vocaloid software. Regarding his music, Yuga noted, “I was struggling to create something completely new. As I tried to integrate many unique elements without outside support or influence, I pushed too experimental and went a bit too far.” Some years later, he joined Google+ and witnessed photographers directly interacting with their audience and was seized by the profound potential. With this he decided to pursue photography and pushed his creativity in a new direction. Yuga explored a range of subjects from people to landscapes. One day, after shooting Fuji all through the night, he heard a huge chorus of birds at dawn. As if being struck by lightning, Yuga suddenly realized Mt. Fuji had stolen his heart. He immediately packed his bags, moved to the Mt. Fuji area and spent his waking hours in pursuit. “I traveled in the world to find what I was looking for, now I found that it was always in Japan.”