Mushrooms from the Forest
Writer: Ryan Willms
A selection of photographs by Takashi Homma, from his book Mushrooms from the Forest, in which he captured a variety of mushrooms in Japan’s forests after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The result is simple, beautiful and highlights the adaptability and strength of one of our planets most interesting and unique plant systems. The images are accompanied by quotes from mycelium maestros Paul Stamets and Terence McKenna.
“I see the mycelium as the Earth's natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.”
—Paul Stamets
"The mushroom said to me once: If you don't have a plan, you become part of somebody else's plan.”
—Terence McKenna
“We need to have a paradigm shift in our consciousness. If we don't get our act together and come in commonality and understanding with the organisms that sustain us today, not only will we destroy those organisms, but we will destroy ourselves.”
—Paul Stamets
"The mushroom said to me once: Nature loves courage. Nature loves courage, and I said – what’s the payoff on that? It said: It shows you that it loves courage because it will remove obstacles. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you up. It will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers, the one’s who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold – this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. It’s done by hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering that it’s a feather bed.”
—Terence McKenna
Takashi Homma (born in Tokyo, 1962) studied photography at Nihon University College of Art but left in 1984 to take a job as an in-house photographer at a Tokyo advertising agency. In 1991, he moved to London to work as a photographer for i-D magazine.