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This work begins with a photograph from my family album, taken in Japan in the 1990s, showing my sister and paternal grandfather standing beside a metal fence. Although no animals are visible in the photograph, the setting suggested some kind of zoo or aquatic animal enclosure.

I began searching for where the photograph was taken, focusing particularly on the distinctive curved shape of the metal fence. I looked through online archives and old family videos from the 1990s, hoping to find a matching structure. It was hard to find one, since visitors generally come to see and photograph the animals, making the fence an obstacle rather than a subject worth capturing.

Eventually, I identified the location as a zoo near my grandparents’ home. Looking through satellite imagery of the site, I came across the shadow of a sea lion. Although captured at a different time, the shadow offered a glimpse of what my sister and grandfather, along with my grandmother, who was presumably behind the camera, might have been looking at beyond the frame.

I digitally collaged the original photograph with fragments of imagery gathered during my search, bringing together the family snapshot, the surrounding environment and the absent animal.