A view of last night's empty cans and bottles left strewn on the steps of a local train station in Madrid. It seems to symbolize the melancholy and bleakness of the world due to a sense of stagnation, or it seems to be a scene that has accidentally acquired an aesthetic formality that was not intended by anyone. I tried to develop the images in such a way that they convey both the event of litter and my personal impression of its visual appeal.
Asako Naruto is a Japanese photographer based in Madrid, trained in design at Musashino Art University and art history at Nagoya University. Her work explores traces of absence and untold urban stories, including a Madrid train-station series and playful work using prisms and split diopters. Since 2022 she has won consecutive Grand Prix awards, including the Paris International Street Photo Awards and B&W International Awards, plus recognition from All About Photo Awards 2026, juried by Steve McCurry. Her first photobook, All the Fading Words, was published by Snap Collective, Denmark, 2025.