About a Place in the Kinki Region p.21: "Paranormal Photograph" - an article published in the May 2010 issue of a monthly magazine
"This is a story about a paranormal photo I've actually seen myself..."
A-san's elaborate designer dress and confident, welcoming smile left a very strong impression. She works as an editor at a women's fashion magazine and could only be described as an industry veteran.
"Shooting for a fashion magazine typically involves booking a studio for several days and then working through many individual shoots in a row. If many of the shoots involve models, there's no wiggle-room in the schedule, so it's all a race against time."
There are many hands on set including the editor, the models and their agents, makeup artists, hair stylists, coordinators, PR representatives from the companies providing the outfits and accessories, sales representatives, writers, camerapersons, assistants, and so on.
The editor is especially busy as they have to take in opinions and directions from all the various people on set and ensure the shoot follows both their editorial vision and schedule.
"And that's why it's crucial to create a good atmosphere on set. I always prioritise a friendly feeling, it helps avoid any tension or arguments."
A-san explains that, in her opinion, the vibe between production staff is just as important as their skills.
"When you've got your whole team, from the cameraperson to hair and makeup, working well together, even newcomers to the set will feel comfortable trusting their co-workers. Now B-san might not have a storied history in the industry yet but they're a great photographer when it comes to working with the models, making them very reliable."
Around six months prior, B-san, a rookie photographer, pitched themselves to the editorial department of the magazine. They soon became a frequent collaborator on A-san's team.
"When it comes to shooting for the cover of the magazine especially, we'll take hundreds and hundreds of photos, paying very close attention to the posing and angle of every single one. Veteran photographers aren't always the most receptive to strict instructions, so when we're doing a shoot where I have a very concrete vision of how things should look, it's often better to work with rookies like B-san who are more flexible and willing to incorporate my opinion."
After a week of shoots at the studio, the editorial department works through the photo data to decide which photos will be pushed to design. To ease this process, the photographer will first remove any obviously unusable photos from their huge volume of data, reduce the file size of the remaining images, and then send over a review copy of several hundred photos.
"I painstakingly go through the massive number of photos so I can narrow it down to a select few. When I've got my picks, I tell the photographer, who does the appropriate retouching (various means of adjusting the image) and then sends me the full images. Once I've confirmed them, they get submitted for design. And this is just one job of many I've got to do, all the while I'm working on layout drafts, handling design orders, and working with the writers for article contents."
On one occasion, A-san was having trouble choosing a photograph for the cover from among those B-san had shot.
"The cover was to feature a model. There was a pose I thought would work really well, but all ten or so of the photos in the review copy that featured that pose weren't good enough. Her earrings, which were supplied by a brand partner, were hidden by her hair in every photo, so sales wouldn't let any of them through."
But A-san was confident about this pose, and kept going through the images featuring it.
"I was scanning the list of thumbnails when I noticed something. All the images in the review copy from B-san had names like 'IMG_0001', and some photos from that part of the shoot were absent."
For instance, if the shots A-san was focused on were titled 'IMG_0010' through 'IMG_0020', then they would be the tenth through the twentieth pictures taken during the shoot. As the file names are generated consecutively, like 'IMG_0010' followed by 'IMG_0011' and 'IMG_0012' and so on, then if there was no 'IMG_0013' in the set, that would indicate that a photo taken at that time wasn't submitted for review.
"In this case, 'IMG_0053' was absent. As it hadn't been sent through for review, it was likely due to some kind of problem with the photo, maybe a technical error or something that was impossible to fix with retouching. But, I was set on using this pose for the cover, so I held on to the hope that it might be usable."
A-san contacted B-san and asked them to send over the raw image, even if it didn't look good. She said she wanted to see it no matter what.
B-san said in reply that they decided the image was unusable due to an error but, likely not feeling able to outright refuse a veteran editor, they still agreed to send the file.
The image was entirely black.
"It was pitch dark. It looked like they'd left the lens cover on, honestly. In any case, since we couldn't use any images from that part of the shoot for the cover, I had to compromise and submit something else."
A few months later, A-san was dealing with a sudden complication.
"We had a feature on accessories due, but one of the necklaces we were planning to include was suddenly discontinued by its brand, this big name company overseas."
The deadline was on the horizon, so A-san was in a flurry trying to come up with a replacement.
"B-san was again my photographer for that page, so I rushed to call them and asked them to send me the entire shoot's files, even anything marked as unusable."
B-san seemed to understand the urgency as they immediately sent over everything.
"Again, 'IMG_0053' was pitch dark. But I didn't have time to think about that, I was focused on finding a replacement photo to use. However, the file name 'IMG_0053' and the black thumbnail were familiar, so it stuck with me."
She'd suddenly recall this oddity while at a wrap party held after a different shoot, with B-san also in attendance.
"They told me again that it was an error, but I thought, was that really all it was? I've heard of photographers who have some kind of pre-shoot ritual they always do, like taking a photo of something unrelated, as a kind of good luck charm. I wondered aloud if this was like that."
B-san, who had put down a few drinks by that point, replied with a chuckle:
"The fifty-third photo I take always ends up like that. Maybe I'm cursed."
As many of the attendees were drinking, A-san and the others around B-san were excited by this response.
Feeling pressured by everyone's curiosity over their mention of a 'curse,' they gave an explanation.
Before mainly working for fashion magazines, B-san would work all sorts of photography jobs.
One such job was a photoshoot for a travel and holiday magazine.
This took place a few years ago, when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism started distributing 'Dam Cards' to dams around the country. The cards had a photo alongside some basic information about the dam printed on them and could be collected by anyone visiting. They were initially a niche collector's item, but soon picked up some popularity among the general public, and eventually 'dam tours' with the aim of collecting many cards became a trend.
As part of a feature on this trend, B-san was hired to shoot one of the dams for the magazine.
The specific dam they visited, located in ●●●●●, was a gravity dam built out of concrete, constructed in the 50s. This type of dam can be found in many parts of Japan, featuring massive sheer concrete walls. This dam in particular wasn't as well-known for sightseeing compared to others around the country—on the contrary, it was more infamous as a place where people go to take their own lives.
In the morning, B-san took a rental car to the dam alongside the editor and a writer. They spent the first few hours taking photos of the dam reservoir and the surrounding scenery. After that, they conducted an interview in which a manager guided them through the facilities as if they were on a proper tour of the dam.
Firstly, the group was given an explanation of the structure and mechanisms of the dam while atop the huge concrete wall that keeps the water of the reservoir in place. The writer was diligently noting down the information while B-san took photos that were relevant to what was being explained.
After that, the group was guided down a long staircase to the maintenance tunnels. These tunnels, which wind through the concrete walls of the dam itself, are only accessible to the public during official tours. The entrance to the tunnels is blocked by a thick metal door—just standing there gave B-san chills from the cold air that seeped out from inside through the gaps in the door.
The temperature inside the tunnels sits at around 15 Celsius throughout the year. The maintenance tunnels themselves, in an arch shape, were only wide enough to fit about two grown adults and were dimly lit by the occasional buzzing fluorescent light. It had a decidedly eerie atmosphere.
After the editor expressed a similar feeling, one of the dam workers flipped the light switches near the entrance, plunging the entire tunnel into pure darkness. They explained "when us staff members go in here we always bring flashlights, just in case." The group easily understood why.
They were led around many corners and down sets of stairs, eventually reaching a room housing the displacement meter, a room housing the mechanisms which control the discharge gate, and various other instalments. The winding labyrinthine nature of the tunnels made B-san feel like they'd be trapped there forever if they happened to get separated from the group. It was a very uneasy feeling.
As the interview continued, they were finally shown the room housing the manual valve controls.
These controls were normally operated remotely from a control room outside the tunnels, and this room was only used when emergencies called for manual operation. The room was huge and filled with countless valves.
While the editor and writer stood near the entrance of the room listening to the manager's explanation of the mechanisms, B-san wandered around taking photos.
They then happened upon a locker standing alone at the back of the room, obscured by the shadow of a large valve.
It was a tall locker, the kind you'd find in an office, and B-san assumed it likely contained cleaning supplies or such.
The door to the locker sat ever so slightly open.
Seeing this, they decided to close the locker and do the dam workers a favour but, out of pure curiosity, they took a peek inside first.
Rather than anything like cleaning supplies, the only thing inside the locker was a French doll sitting near the floor, head angled up as if looking right at them.
The eeriness of what they found caused B-san to make a sound, and the editor and writer walked over and see what had happened.
The two were also stunned by the finding.
The writer then asked the manager to explain themselves. They replied:
"That was already there when I started working here. Supposed to be something we just had to keep there. That's what the person here before me wrote. No idea what for."
The way the manager talked about the doll so nonchalantly only made it more eerie.
The manager quickly went back to what they were talking about before, as if nothing had happened. The editor gave B-san a sly wink and a smile—which likely meant to take a photo. B-san assumed they wanted to make a joke out of it while driving back later.
They found the idea to be pretty tasteless but didn't want to refuse a request from the publisher that hired them, so they snuck a photo of the doll when the staff weren't looking.
"And that photo was the fifty-third one of the shoot. When I reviewed the image data on the way back, 'IMG_0053' was just of something completely black. The editor was a bit disappointed. Ever since then, the fifty-third photo in every shoot I've done has ended up like that. Honestly, it's pretty annoying, so I wish whatever was doing it would stop."
One of the stylists let out a yelp of disbelief. A-san asked:
"But why pitch dark? If the doll was cursed, wouldn't you expect to see some kind of ghost or something?"
B-san stared for a moment, as if lost in thought, and then answered:
"Yeah, I wonder why... But that's all I've got to say about it."
"In my line of work, you have to collaborate with people of all different stripes. I could tell—people often communicate in a way that's meant to seem like it's their honest perspective, but they're actually hiding how they really feel. I knew that wasn't the whole story."
A-san goes on to say,
"When I saw the photograph myself, I thought 'the photo is pitch dark.' However, B-san described it as a photo 'of something completely black.' Isn't that strange? That's not what you'd say if there was nothing in the image. The impression I got was that they knew something was there, but they didn't want me to find out about it."
At work the next day, A-san double-checked the 'IMG_0053' file that B-san had sent over.
"It was like I said, pitch dark, and I couldn't make out anything in it. So I touched it up."
She opened the file in an image editing program and turned the cranked up the brightness.
It took her a while to figure out what she was looking at.
There were rows of white, slightly curved, at the top and bottom of the image, with something else sitting near the bottom row.
"It was the inside of a mouth. I think human. It looked like the photo was taken super close-up, as the mouth filled the entire shot. The white rows were teeth, and the other thing was a tongue."
B-san may not have wanted to frighten A-san by telling her what was in the photograph. She never brought up the topic again.
"After that, I started having these strange dreams. I can never remember too much about them, but they're definitely nightmares. I would dream of being chased around some kind of mountainous area by a man with his mouth wide open. Maybe the curse got me, too."
To this day, B-san's review copies always lack an 'IMG_0053'.
Translation Notes 17-24
The translation notes are organised by part. Please be careful of spoiling yourself by reading ahead.
This is an amateur translation of the web novel 近畿地方のある場所について as posted to kakuyomu.jp by the author 背筋. The web novel is freely accessible to the public, and this translation has no relation to any other adaptions. I claim no rights or ownership of the content presented.