Keita Hayasaka, who works as Mikke, is a photographer based in Yokohama, Japan. He began photographing in 2023 and has worked exclusively in monochrome since 2024. His background is in conservation ecology, where he studied native and introduced species in relation to the conservation of semi-natural grasslands. This experience informs his interest in how naming shapes the ways subjects are valued and treated. His work questions how a name can lead people to judge a subject’s worth, overlook it or regard it as out of place before the subject has been closely observed. His subjects are plants and small animals encountered in his everyday surroundings. For him, knowing a subject’s name or origin does not close the encounter; his photographs hold it open a little longer. His work considers both the subject itself and the meanings people assign to it, examining how knowledge, assumptions and values shape what is seen.