Bending the Light Page #2

I mean, I'm on my own taking pictures,

so I feel kind of vulnerable sometimes.

- [Voiceover] Does your family

approve of what you're doing?

- They didn't, because this

idea of a girl walking around

with a camera through the streets of Egypt

was kind of a bit weird.

So there was that pressure of,

"Why don't you just do a normal job,

"have some money, have

that peace of mind?"

I've had some bad times

but I don't think as bad

as many other people have had.

- [Voiceover] What's the future for you?

- To continue doing work

that is important for me

because of the subject matter.

But I don't think I'll ever be rich.

It's important to have people around me

that really believe in what I'm doing,

and recently my parents have been that

and it's made really

tremendous difference for me.

When they see pictures and they're like,

"Laura, we're really proud of you."

I mean, this is really,

for me this is really good

to have the support of my family.

- [Voiceover] Do you

ever think of the people

who make your lenses?

- Completely honestly, no I never do.

- [Voiceover] You just

take it for granted?

- I absolutely do.

It's like the farmer and the apple.

You don't think about the farmer

when you're eating the apple,

it's exactly the same thing.

I'm not thinking about the person that

made this when I'm using it.

(atmospheric music)

- Japan was formative for me.

When I came here as a 23-year-old,

I didn't know much of anything.

Coming back 30 years later,

realizing the year-and-a-half

that I spent here

and how important that was,

it was what created who I am today.

The sense of ritual and

then going out into the

town where it's completely chaotic,

and those contradictions again are what

really really excited me about being here.

What is special for me

is this is one of the few

rock gardens, a Suiseki garden

which means a dry garden,

in this part of Japan.

These eight rocks in this

garden represent eight gods.

It's a paradise garden.

Shakkei translates as "borrowing scenery."

So at one time, the scenery

that was being borrowed here

was probably that

hillside, that cliffside.

Here we have a prefab school

that's been built right outside

of the grounds of this

very contemplative space.

Contemporary, the ancient,

they all work together

and I'm interested in that.

I'm interested in juxtaposition,

I'm interested in artifice,

and that's carried through

with my work for 30 years.

The Japanese sense of architecture,

the Japanese sense of space,

is something that's always interested me.

That's the reason I came here.

I have a recollection when I was a kid

going into the chaos of my room

and going into my older brother's

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