Senbazuru

In Japan there is a tradition known as “senbazuru.” According to legend, if one folds 1000 paper cranes they will be granted a single wish by the gods. The cranes are usually strung together and hung outside the outer walls of a temple. As they are exposed to the elements and slowly decay, it is believed that the sacrificed cranes will carry the folder’s wish up to heaven for the gods to receive.

Deciding he's an American, the artist opted to burn them instead.

Johnny folded the cranes over the course of a year, personally creasing each beak and wing himself while steadfastly refusing the help of others. He did this because he wanted to know what it felt like to bring each crane into this world, and then banish it into the next. When Johnny first started this project he was hoping to create a huge fireball in the snow. “This will be so cool” he thought, “there’s no way I could screw this up.” But when the moment of destruction finally came, the little bastards refused to even light – instead they just simmered quietly, laughing.

The Beginning of the End

2011

This was the beginning of the end. The last sheet of 8"x 8" white printer paper, hand ripped by the artist, that was destined to become number 1000th of 1000 paper cranes.

Decorated Crane

2010

Johnny knew he wanted to shoot the final product in the snow, so the goal starting out was to fold specifically 1000 white paper cranes. However after making the first 50 or so, Johnny was already bored to tears. So he started drawing on the cranes to keep himself interested in the project. Eventually he figured out that when unfolding a finished crane, the crease marks on the paper make a perfect blueprint for how the crane will look in its finished form (actually, he learned this from a TED talk by a contemporary origami artist named Robert J. Lang). By the end of the folding process Johnny probably had close to 100 or so unique "designer" cranes, each one with it's own style, concept, and idea. The majority of them look awful, but this was one of the more successful ones.

Mother with Children

2010

This was one of Johnny's earlier ideas for a crane composition. He knew that so long as he had enough cranes in uniform size and shape, that they would look cool no matter how they were photographed. But since he has a habit of second guessing himself, he wanted to double check. So he folded a couple of small cranes from leftover scrap pieces paper, and took a picture of them on his mom's kitchen counter.

the First 100

2010

This was Johnny's first pile of 100 cranes. The first hundo were actually the easiest to fold. This is because he was still motivated, but that quickly changed with the more cranes he made. Johnny ended up working on this project sporadically throughout the course of a year. While he tried to maintain a pace of 10 cranes/day (which costs roughly 40 minutes of pain), he rarely had the discipline to keep that pace for an extended period of time. Occasionally he would feel guilty about his lack of progress and self discipline, and would binge by folding up to 30 in a day. This of course, would then be followed by a week of doing nothing. His pace did however, pick up as the deadline started approaching. Especially after he watched the first blizzard of the season roll through with only 50% of cranes he needed completed. Some people would call this process "procrastination," Johnny however, calls it "gradual motivation."

2010

Shortly after making the first pile of 100, Johnny realized he really needed a way to store the little bastards. Mostly, he kept them in trash bags and left them in miscellaneous piles around his room. While this system started out okey at first, eventually he needed multiple bags stored in different locations.

Craneface

2010
Archival Pigment Print
16 1/2" x 24" inches

When Johnny finally hit the first 500 cranes, much in life had changed. The project (and the guilt associated from its lack of progress) consumed him, so he wanted take a picture commemorating the moment upon reaching the halfway mark. This was one of the early hits on his now defunct blog, where he actually got a response from others about his work. From this point forward, the artist started to feel like he was actually doing something worthwhile.

Obscura Cranes Triptych

2010

There's a famous fine art photographer from Boston named Abelardo Morell (Abe Morell) who is known for his mastery of the camera obscura technique. Abe is also one of Johnny's photography heroes, and a lot of his work around this time was heavily influenced by Abe. This technique is the principle which all cameras are based upon. In nature, when small bits of light enter a dark chamber, an inverted image of the scene outside will be projected into the chamber. This technique was popularized by painters during the Renaissance, who used camera obscura to render their subjects using a scientific perspective. This image was made in collaboration between Johnny and an old classmate, fellow photographer Aziz "Oz" Lalani, when he came to visit Johnny in Boston in 2010.

Crane Summit

2011

When the first snowfall of the season actually came, Johnny was still rushing to finish the folding process. This was photographed shortly after to test out how the cranes would actually look in the snow. The light that day was much harsher than he wanted, so the artist knew he would have to wait for an overcast day with fresh snow on the ground to carry out his vision. In short what he needed to do, was to photograph the cranes in a blizzard.

Morphing Rock w/Tree

2011
Archival Pigment Print
24" x 16 1/2" inches

February 2011 during the last big snow storm of the season, the day finally came. Johnny knew that if he didn't shoot that morning, he would probably have to wait another year to get a second chance. For once, he listened to my mother, and woke up extra early that morning to take these pictures out in the freezing cold.

Forest

2011
Archival Pigment Print
36" x 24" inches | edition of 5

Crane Trunk

2011
Archival Pigment Print
16 1/2" x 24" inches | edition of 5

Lotus Field

2011
Archival Pigment Print
38" x 24" inches | edition of 5

Landmines

2011
Archival Pigment Print
39 1/2" x 24" inches | edition of 5

Finale

2011
Archival Pigment Print
36" x 24" inches | edition of 5

This was it. Johnny knew from the start that this was going to be a one shot deal, you can't exactly burn 1000 paper cranes twice. No, that picture would cost 2000 paper cranes. All of his 100+ hours of hand cramping, mind numbing folding had lead up to this final moment of truth - and the goddamn paper wouldn't even light. Even after he dosed the little bastards in lighter fluid, there was little he could do to get his inferno started after the cranes had been snowed on for the past 3 hours. Instead they just laid there in the fresh powder, simmering quietly, laughing at him.

Fin