On the Exhibition

Art,
O eternal light,
Imperishable imprint of civilizations!

Hymn to life,
To liberty, to creation, to joy!

Intense prayer,
Profound harmony with the fundamental reality!

Forum of friendship,
Where millions of beings
Join with, greet, and smile at each other.


Daisaku Ikeda


These lines are illustrating well Daisaku Ikeda's artistic intention: with his work, he always has tried to catch the beauty of the moment and transmit it to the people.

Daisaku Ikeda (1928-2023), president of the Soka Gakkai International and central figure within this Buddhist association, where he has assembled about 12 million families through his dynamic efforts, offers the impression of an universal thinker. With his ability to unite cultural and political action, this pilgrim for world peace has been honoured by the United Nations; he has founded universities and museums and has published numerous books on Buddhism and issues of our zivilication.

On his worldwide journeys, Daisaku Ikeda seeked to catch with his camera moments of nature that touched his heart. He called himself an amateur and it was his desire that by viewing his photographs, within this hectic age, one will be able to stop for a while, to take a deep breath, and to look closely at oneself and the world around. His kind of photography lets him snap the shutter exactly when contact between life and nature comes into being. "Life reacts in the most sensitive way to every single moment which is never to return," as Ikeda said. There exists a certain beauty, a special value that only can be found on a certain day, at a given time and one certain moment. This reality brings a photograph to life.

The exhibition Dialogue with Nature is a poetic journey, where the Far East meets with the West, and where we can see through Daisaku Ikeda's view a part of the mind of modern Japan that has been quite unkown up to now. It is possible that considerations growing out of this will be meaningful and effective for our times, enabling us to overcome the gap that has divided East and West since ancient times.

It was Daisaku Ikeda's big desire that these photographs will provide many aficionados with self-confidence and hope, and that they might serve as a small contribution towards fostering both cultural and friendly relations.

"I will continue my journeys of hope to let the world of the people shine even brighter. Let us advance, with power, completely free, united with the whole world and the great nature, fearless, cheerfully, proud, and curious."

The exhibtion Dialogue with Nature was shown for the first time in 1982 and has traveled to more than 30 countries and 70 cities since then. The first exhibition in Austria took place in Septembre 2002 at the Palais Palffy, Vienna.