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Toyokazu Nagano photographs his daughter on what fans have dubbed “the magic road,” a stretch of asphalt that has become as much of a character in his photos as the young girl herself. Last year, Nagano’s flikr feed propelled to immense popularity when LIFE took notice of his work, featuring a portrait of the three-year old Kanna Nagano on the magazine’s tumblr. 

“When I started, I was taking photos with a camera in order to keep family memories,” Nagano explained in an interview with NPR. “But I now take photos to create family memories.”

 As Kanna plays, poses, and grows up before the camera, Nagano’s sun-faded photographs capture the pure, limitless whimsy of a child’s imagination - the whole world is waiting, just down the road.

(Read NPR’s interview with Nagano here).

- Maggie