This sublime photograph emanates a serenity and a soothing silence that only Japanese gardens have the secret of. The colours, the shapes, the nature are perfectly balanced: at the mere sight of it, one breathes more deeply. 

Several steps led Hans Silvester to discover the Empire of the Rising Sun. Already at a young age, the photographer was 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 was slowly growing inside 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 them 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 was able to capture 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. 

Retour De Voyage is mixed: at once envious of not being in the photographer's shoes and grateful that he is sharing this typical place with us. Hans Silvester always takes us on a journey through his series of photos, but with this one, it seems he even managed to capture some of his own perfume, so much so that it breathes...