New Cosmos of Photography 2012 Grand Prize selection committee meeting report
[ Excellence Award winners’ presentations, and judges’ comments ]
Yosuke Harada: “project a world”
Rather than shooting with the theme of “project a world” for my piece, it is through the act of taking photos that people and things, landscapes, and phenomena that are the subjects appear to “project a world,” which is a special place separate from the everyday world. I was not able to find the meaning of showing photos to people, or putting them on display. I felt uncomfortable with the act of making photos, establishing a theme or concept in order to put on a display, as it felt like I was making something to be consumed. For me, in a way, the act of making photos itself is the objective.
In photos, a large portion is left up to the subject, and I am only the mediator who watches. Slipping away from reality, this means that the idea of viewing is indecisive, and looking for this, I am waiting until I melt away into the air, and my senses have adapted. As I have no explosive power, I usually miss decisive moments, and in the fairly long term after detaching from the time axis, the side that is viewing, and the side being viewed conflict, and something like a middle place occurs, where consciousness comes and goes. My sense of sight withdraws behind my eyes, and it seems as though I am looking from behind my head. The act of seeing is not the sense of condensing your vision, instead, it is opening your vision, and even if you want to establish it, I think that not being able to establish it and being scattered is similar to losing your senses.
If you can look at my works any time, and if they are the kind of thing that you are not conscious of looking at, and can get lost in, that makes me happy. Everyday, we are inundated with intolerable lightness and looseness which comes along with newness. Resigning my body to instantaneous joy that is renewed sporadically, becoming numb and temporarily putting the senses on hold, I want to experience the act of seeing with my own eyes. Doubting and denying a variety of things, but in the end I would like to answer the world affirmatively. What are photos, what is looking, what is creating...? Honestly, I don’t know. The only thing I can say is, I just have to keep being involved with it. I am going to have a more resolute eye, and I want to think more about how to look at things.
Minoru Shimizu : As Harada said, this piece is not something you take a quick look at, and there is no explosive power. However, after looking at it for awhile, you will get an idea of the multitude of images that were rejected to select these photos. I think that the sense of a collection of time was a good idea. However, I was a little annoyed that the exhibit was arranged like a puzzle, and why these were selected from all of your works. I think that “project a world” means to stand out from the world, to shift away from your own world, and by putting that away in a rectangular puzzle, the strength of the photos is weakened, one by one. It is a good piece, but it requires an explanation. I would like it to have the kind of power that would make anyone stop in front of a photo. That is what I would like you to think about from now on.
Katsumi Omori : Each photo is carefully made, and I like it, but on the other hand there is a sense of déjà vu. For those of us on the shooting side, we are completely immersed, and we want to branch out, but have them remain as photos, and this is a conflict. Regardless of one's age or career, what I want is for people living now to progress, to carve and tear their way forward. Recently, I saw an exhibition by an artist that went through the New Cosmos of Photography, and I felt difficulty continuing. There are things you each run into, and are grappling with. However, this has a kind of beauty only found in a debut piece. This is your first attempt, and as it was your first, I would like to have seen more awareness.
HIROMIX : The females were photographed beautifully. Looking lonely, and wistful, their expressions were great. There is demand for photographers who can capture people well. In a good way, even though he is a man, Harada’s work has the uncertainty of a young girl, and a feeling of searching for the truth. The opinions of Shimizu and Omori are that they want to see the power, or vigor of youth. There is no mistake that as one becomes more well-known, people pay more attention to what differs from the period when everybody was having a good time together, and I think this is when one's photos change also.
