A Promise Written in the Stars

This photograph is a self-portrait created to commemorate a personal milestone in my life: my proposal to my partner on July 7th, the day of Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival in Japan. Tanabata is a cultural tradition that celebrates the meeting of two stars across the Milky Way, and the symbolism of that story became central to the way I imagined the proposal. The ring I gave her was designed with inspiration from the Milky Way itself, a reminder of the connection between our personal story and the vast universe above us. Although the proposal happened on July 7th, the actual photograph was taken on July 19th, under the summer sky. I wanted to place us physically beneath the Milky Way, which had already become a metaphor for our commitment to one another. By standing under the stars, I hoped to visually weave together the mythology of Tanabata, the design of the ring, and the emotions of that day. The night was not perfect for photography. Thin clouds drifted across the sky, and faint moonlight softened the darkness. These conditions made capturing the stars more difficult, yet they also introduced a sense of realism and atmosphere that I ultimately embraced. The resulting image is not about technical perfection, but about preserving a memory in its truest form. To create the photograph, I combined two exposures: one focused on the stars, and one on ourselves. This allowed both the Milky Way and the human presence beneath it to appear clearly. The decision reflects not only a technical necessity but also a symbolic one—just as two perspectives come together to form a single shared life, two images came together to form this visual memory. For me, this work embodies the merging of love, tradition, and the infinite night sky. It is both a personal document and a symbolic image, capturing not only what was visible above us but also the meaning we placed within it.