Sakura, Bullet Trains and Borrowed Woodblocks: Maidstone Photographer's Japan Show Opens Today

Maidstone-born photographer Oliver Bryant's first solo exhibition opens at Creative Maidstone today, bringing together photographs from two trips to Japan in 2025 and 2026 - and, alongside them, two centuries-old Japanese prints borrowed from Maidstone's own museum collection.

"Sakura 桜 A Journey Through Japan" takes its name from the Japanese word for cherry blossom, which flowers for only a short period each spring and has become associated with renewal and the temporary nature of life. Bryant planned his travels around Japan's cherry blossom forecast, journeying from Tokyo to Hakodate to catch the sakura at the height of its bloom, with further photographs taken in Kyoto, Osaka and Aomori. The collection moves between urban and rural settings and between colour and monochrome, inspired by the Japanese tradition of hanami, or flower viewing.

Maidstone Museums is loaning two Edo-period Japanese woodblock prints to hang alongside Bryant's contemporary photographs: the final print from Utagawa Hiroshige's "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō", dating from around 1833, and Katsushika Hokusai's "Fine Wind, Clear Weather", from around 1831. The pairing sets traditional Japanese printmaking against contemporary photography, built around shared themes of nature, observation and the passage of time.

Born in Maidstone in 1994, Bryant developed his photography practice more seriously during the Covid-19 pandemic. He's a member of the Disabled Photographers' Society, whose Preliminary Nature Print competition he won in 2025 with a photograph taken in Berlin. The exhibition - his first UK solo show - is accompanied by the launch of his first photography zine, also titled "Sakura 桜 A Journey Through Japan".

The exhibition runs from today, Friday 6 November, to Tuesday 24 November at Creative Maidstone, admission free. There's a free launch event and curator's talk with Oliver Bryant tomorrow, Saturday 7 November, from 2pm to 4.30pm.

Source: Maidstone Borough Council.