Shōkakkō. All images shot between March-September 2020, during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic.

The term “小確幸 (shōkakkō)” is a Japanese-made Chinese word that comes from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s novel Afternoon in the Islets of Langerhands (1986).  “Small but certain happiness”—Murakami wrote in his novel, is a life philosophy of finding pleasure in mundanity.

I started shooting these photos back in March 2020, when the first lockdown due to Covid-19 was enforced in London. In the beginning, these photos weren’t intended to be a project, rather than just a therapeutic self-care act. It started as a personal photo journal and gradually turned into an exploration of the intertwined relationship between gratitude and contentment.