“Urban Deer Of Nara”: A Photo Series By Yoko Ishii Documents The Free-Ranging Urban Deers In Japan

This is completely true, even though it looks like a staged or Photoshopped scenes – it’s not! Amazingly, in Nara, Japan, Sika deer live freely among humans in an urban populated city. They’re sacred and protected by law and free to roam within the man-made architecture, cars, and people.

More: Yoko Ishii, Facebook h/t: colossal, ignant

Together they walk through the open shops, malls, and roads. Yoko Ishii is a Kanagawa-based photographer fascinated by this unique occurrence. She was observing a pair of deer stopping at the intersection in 2011 and the way how animals interacted with common city infrastructure inspired her to create her own photo series dedicated to Sika deer in Nara.

“These picturesque moments when early in the morning the deer can be found standing in the middle of desolate intersections, not bound by man’s borders and laws, yet inhabiting a man-made city is fascinating and inspiring,” Ishii shares.

Her photo series named Beyond the Border explores how animals exist outside the basic rules the regular cities would usually operate. With growing deer population new issues come to notice, such are accidents with cars.