The sea as the source of life. In her photobook Les Deux Crépuscules (lit. “The Two Twilights”), Japanese photographer Mayuko Ukawa captures the intricate links between the ocean and the lives of those who live near it. In portraits, snapshots, and photographs of objects washed up on the beach, Ukawa sketches the cyclicality of nature and hints at the vastness of the world.

“Why does it calm us to hear the ocean?
Does it remind us of our time in the womb? Seawater has almost the same chemical composition as amniotic fluid. The sea is where we begin life.
[…]
I come across different things as I walk along the beach. Mysterious debris, everyday items labeled in foreign lan- guages, dead fish and other creatures. Most of the marine trash that washes ashore comes from our daily lives and makes its way into rivers and out into the sea.
I sensed a human presence in these things. Over time, I became interested in the lives of the people to whom they once belonged.”
— from Mayuko Ukawa’s afterword