Profile
Born in 1987, Kumano, Mie, Japan.
Lived in Nagoya, Aichi until 2010.
That same year, joined a manufacturer-affiliated SIer company as a systems engineer and moved to Tokyo.
Began taking photographs in 2013.
Held first photography exhibition in 2024.
As of 2026, continues creating works while employed at the same company since joining.
Artist Statement
Interval
There is a blank interval before we understand the scene in front of us.
I stay with that interval before meaning takes form.
My daily life is shaped by constant demands for judgment, optimization, and immediate answers.
I rarely pause before understanding.
I use photography as a means to remain within that interval.
My attention is directed not toward the object itself,
but toward the moment before meaning takes shape.
RYOTA SAKURAI
櫻井 涼太
Projects
Between Here and There — an interval before meaning takes form
(2026-)
"Between Here and There" is an attempt to establish conditions in everyday environments in which an interval—the time before meaning takes form—arises.
iOS Widget Application
This widget displayed on the smartphone screen is not intended to convey information or to prompt actions or decisions.
Visual information on the screen is often processed immediately, leading to understanding, judgment, and subsequent action. This widget introduces a moment before that flow so that the gaze can pause.
By drawing the eye to the widget, it establishes conditions on the screen within everyday life where an interval can arise.
🌐 App Store - Apple
VS Code Extension
This extension is not designed to increase development efficiency.
Rather, it introduces an interval within an environment where judgment and optimization tend to proceed by default.
Writing code, reading it, revising it—the actions themselves do not stop. Yet before they are immediately defined as “correct,” “incorrect,” or “complete,” it establishes conditions in which an interval can arise.
🌐 Interval - Visual Studio Marketplace
No, it is not. While “negative space” or ma refers to compositional elements within an image, “Interval” refers to the state in which perception has not yet consolidated into meaning.
Note: The Japanese term ma describes a spatial or temporal interval within composition. Although both involve the presence of a pause, “Interval” concerns the stage of perception before meaning stabilizes, rather than a structural feature of the image itself.
Yes, it is.
I do not suggest specific emotions or meanings; rather, I construct the conditions under which “Interval” can emerge.
It has aspects of both time and psychology.
It refers to the experience that takes place before perception stabilizes into meaning when we encounter a scene.
When an expression is understood immediately, interpretation closes too quickly.
I prioritize sustaining the state before a conclusion settles.
The subjects are real scenes, but reproduction or description is not the objective.
It concerns the stage before perception settles into a meaningful image.
While it shares common ground with photographic realism, it focuses on the moment where reality and perception intersect.
Expressing the inner self is not the purpose.
However, individual memories or experiences may be evoked during viewing.
These do not result from conveying the artist’s interiority, but arise from perceptual processes themselves.
I focus on sustaining the state before these processes consolidate into meaning.
It does not aim for healing or spirituality.
Nor does it treat scenes as symbols or metaphors.
The act of seeing before interpretation begins is what I call “Interval.”