This bronze censer burning in front of a temple in Kyoto caught Hans Silvester's eye. The artist says that "the temples themselves, codified and uncluttered for the Shintoists, more artistic for the Buddhists, invite us to surpass ourselves". 

Several stages led Hans Silvester to discover the Empire of the Rising Sun. From a very young age, the photographer was already interested in Zen Buddhism and Japanese culture. Then, it was the images brought back in 1951 by the Swiss journalist Werner Bischof that struck him. The desire to go there slowly grew within him, and destiny held out its arms to him: in 1968, a supermarket chain offered him the project of taking photos in Japan to put in chocolate bars to build customer loyalty. Hans Silvester was asked to produce a "chocolate" book on the theme of Japan. He stayed there for a year and was able to experience the country intensively. Outside the cities, the photographer likes to say that he was an object of curiosity. Not being able to speak the language, he carried around little papers written in Japanese in his pockets, on which were written, among other things, "I am as clean as a Japanese" when negotiating room and board. In one year, Hans Silvester captured the children of Tokyo in a very modern and graphic setting, as well as the Zen temples of Ryoanji and the helmeted demonstrations of Japanese students in 1968. 

This photograph, in which the mist seems to blur the image, contrasts with the sharp shapes of the censer in the foreground. These typically Japanese curves in this vegetal setting give off something peaceful. It had to be in the Retour De Voyage selection!