The creatures which appear in this essay are inhabitants of the North Woods in Minnesota, where the author frequently visited and stayed over three years. The North Woods is a huge stretch of lake and forest country from the north of Minnesota to the Arctic Circle in Canada.

In May 1999 the author Hidehiro visited the North Woods to meet Jim Brandenburg (a nature photographer) and to encounter the wolves which appeared in his works. He met Jim after an eight-day trip by kayak, starting from a small town Ely. Jim introduced his friend, Will Steger, who is a polar explorer. It was in Will's small vacant cabin in the woods that Hidehiro ended up spending a total of thirteen months on repeat visits from 1999 to 2001.

He took many pictures in the North Woods. The pictures of trees, plants, landscapes of deep forest, animals and birds remained in his hand, and the experiences of living in the woods became part of him as a result of the three years. These texts are a record of what he saw in the North Woods -- captured in another way than pressing a shutter.

*We published this contents in chapbook packaged along with the CD-ROM "The Sphere of Woods" (photomovie). The details are here: