When you visit Naoshima, there’s a fair chance you will encounter Hajime Tateishi—on one of his patrols of the Honmura village streets near his house, or perhaps further afield. He’s so friendly you may think he’s talking to someone familiar over your shoulder, but no, he just wants to chat with you. Where are you from? Where are you staying? Maybe he can help you find a lunch spot. (Some call him Naoshima’s one-man tourism department.) And if you chat for more than a few minutes, he may pull out some of his many, many photographs to show you.

Hajime Tateishi is a prolific snapshotter of the island’s cats, flowers, jellyfish, and especially sunsets. He’s in his eighties, though he doesn’t look it, and he doesn’t bother with a computer. Instead, he opts to print all his photos straight from the camera and then delete the files so he can start fresh. He has filled his albums with many thousands of photos of the changing seasons and weather on the island where he was born. Here is a sampling: