Report on the Grand Prize Selection Open-Committee Meeting of New Cosmos of Photography 2008 (31st competition)
Overview of open selection meeting
Each nominee gave a five-minute presentation and answered the judges’ questions in front of a large audience who filled the hall in an atmosphere of excitement. The Grand Prize selection was based on nominated work and contents of the individual artist’s presentations.
The time allotted for each presentation was ten minutes. Presentations were given in order of the Japanese syllabary of candidates’ names.
Presentations were given in order of the Japanese syllabary of the candidates’ names. Okabe Tokyo, the first presenter, explained that his work “Yosshi World” was fashioned on a surreal diorama world by proliferating photos of a friend on a photo screen, and that his thoughts when creating it were: “It is an entertainment photo and you will enjoy it and discover something new every time you look at it.” His smooth way of speaking and comical style went well together, and the meeting got off to a relaxing start.
Kohei Koyama, the next presenter spoke enthusiastically about his thoughts on photos of himself called: “Finding romance in the virtual image.” He explained the process of how he combined analog photos with digital technology to make composites, and the “Ideal World” was the result. He explained some interesting episodes about how it is usually difficult to attempt something like this, and details of how he was able to achieve important shooting points in an unforgiving natural environment.
Kenya Sugai gave his presentation while showing slides and explaining how sometimes frustrating moments would be captured while shooting in natural everyday situations. He explained that he did not have a particular theme, and also how he wanted to take photos from a point of view that was consistent with memories from childhood. He said in a matter-of-fact but direct way how he had a desire to get away from good photos, and beautiful photos.
Masanori Hata talked about his work “Black humor or useless word,” in which words and photos are reverberant. Hata said that with “Black humor or useless word,” he thinks there are words not directly related to the content of a conversation (uh, um, etc.), and that there is also word play where the meaning is changed by the sounds of words. He gave a clear presentation on his efforts to show the world around himself in his own thoughts, by adding incoherent play words of his thoughts to the photos he took.
Ayano Hoya explained her work “Gift” in which she confronted “her own unconsciousness.” Why are fragmentary memories and vividly remembered mixtures of unrelated dreams selected inside one’s mind? She said that she wanted to have a good look at what she wanted to shoot by expressing the mysteries of everyday thoughts and realizing them in her works. She explained in detail the intentions regarding the images captured in some of her photos.
Miyuki Motoki, the last presenter showed slides of the slaughterhouse where she photographed her work “zoe,” and as she played back sounds recorded on location, a strained atmosphere hung over the selection meeting hall for awhile. The existence and deaths of animals that are eaten is mechanized, rationalized, and handled as an ordinary event. Motoyuki’s diligent efforts left a deep impression on the selection meeting with the power of photos as a documentary.
