Pieter van Staalduinen

Ma (間) is a Japanese concept for the space between events: the pause for breath before a story’s climax, a moment to remember the context of a thing, a counterpoint to a conflict. It isn’t emptiness; it’s what lets you feel the impact of everything that comes after.

Ma features heavily in Akira Kurosawa’s and Hayao Miyazaki’s movies, where both directors use it to let their viewers pause, breathe, and prepare for what’s to come. Miyazaki said, explaining ma using hand clapping, “…the space between my clapping is ma. If you have just nonstop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness.” How would we appreciate big moments without small ones between, or spectacle without quiet?

These photographs live in that space between, with room left for whatever you bring to them. Take a moment, a breath, and a look.

The sun shining through a forest of tall, thin pines, lighting a mossy floor scattered with fallen logs.
A long, straight gravel road between aspen and spruce trees under heavy grey clouds, with a small animal standing in the middle.
A still pond edged with reeds and shrubs beneath a sky of swirling grey storm clouds.
Two curved walls of small bronze tiles almost meeting, leaving a narrow dark gap between them.
The sharp copper-coloured edge of a modern building roof cutting across a clear blue sky.
A paved path curving away under a green canopy of trees, beside a low concrete wall.
Black-and-white photo of old wooden steps climbing a dark, overgrown hillside toward a bright sky.
Green rolling grassland above a winding river canyon, with blue mountains and evening clouds in the distance.
Inside a dim slot canyon, red sandstone walls glowing softly above a sandy floor scattered with rocks.
A heavy blue-grey cloud with glowing pink edges over a pale evening sky.
A calm lake at blue hour, with silhouetted trees on the far shore reflected in the water and a faint pink glow on the horizon.
A leaning fence post and barbed wire in deep snow, with a pale orange sky beneath dark clouds.
Black-and-white winter scene of snowy spruce trees on a bank above a frozen river, fading into falling snow.