“The Wrong People”
As a documentary photographer, I’ve lately been interested in the subject matter’s voice. In the world of photojournalism, it’s all too common to make do with just 2-3 simple images to explain complicated problems and issues.
Not only that, although someone creates a record, that person is generally an outsider and doesn’t really know anything about the photographic subject. With this The Wrong People, I maintained my approach of becoming intimate. Over more than three years, I would interview the photographic subject, and built up every effort to become a part of their lives. Whether it was wandering the beach with drug dealers, or watching TV in the living room, or spending the night talking about cars, everything strongly urged me to communicate the plight of the photographic subject. I can say this is an integrated project for me. I have really become close to some of those people, and in a sense, you can even say that I’ve become one of them. Through this language of photography, I hope that those seeing this work can more deeply understand these people’s lives.
Selecting judge: Nobuyoshi Araki
I like the fact that he can take good portraits. They’re taken well. It looks like there’s no effort in it, like he photographed very casually, but the framing is excellent. Also, he took time with the other person, right? Time. Lately, just to be passing by is considered cool. Something called a passing moment seems to be popular right now. That’s actually more like someone just happened to have the time, rather than a passing moment. In contrast, the space framing and time framing is good. Even without reading the comments, the life of each person is reflected.
