“It was there. It won’t be there again.”
This is a record of what I saw during the period from April 1994 to February 1996. My father was hospitalized in summer 1994 for an atrophic disease. That summer my sister gave birth to a baby girl. It was really a hot summer. On February 15, 1996, the quietness of the hospital room, where my father’s respirator had been taken off, made me aware that he was dead. My mother spoke to him, “You can go home now.” I wanted to remember chronologicaly all that had happened in those days one after another. My father used to call me Non-chan. I remember very well how he was when he was in good health, although I did try not to recall it after he got sick. All the pictures here are those my father helped me photograph. Thank you, Dad.
I would like to continue taking pictures, exposing my helpless self, with shaken emotion, to the question “What is life?” It is difficult for me to truly grasp, before a certain period of time goes by, the meaning of the pictures I have taken. Or I don’t understand my pictures well. Therefore, there is nothing I can “finish” in myself. Now that Mr. Araki, whom I respect, has selected my work, I feel encouraged to recollect the past in a positive perspective. From now on, I want to continue taking pictures of “small” things, which surprise me and impress me, to carefully repeat such activities.
Selecting judge: Nobuyoshi Araki
This photographer prioritizes her own feelings, and I agree with her method. The time will come when she asks herself whether or not her works are too subjective and more objectivity is required. Strangely, however, photographs are most interesting when the photographer wavers between being subjective and objective. Photographs are, so to speak, mirrors or windows. In other words, the most exciting photograph is like a mirror, through which the other side can be seen. Or a photograph is like a mirror that one can look at and, at the same time, can be seen from the other side. They are exciting and scary parts of photography. Photographers have to experience various situations, and they should expose themselves to them. To who or to what? It could be your boyfriend, and anyone or anything would be fine. I would add that exposure to the times is good for you.
