“I Sleep”
I sleep because I’m sleepy. It is just that. There is no complicated reasoning behind it. I’m so sleepy all the time and at all places. I doze off easily. I think that I’m happiest when I’m sleeping. I have been taking pictures of me sleeping. When I’m asleep, I don’t need to worry about things, I don’t have to rush, and I don’t need to think too much. It is the most pleasant time I can have. Our surroundings are moving fast. People are walking down the streets without pausing. They are tired, stressed, and still in a hurry. They would become blind to themselves. I always want to be myself and go at my pace. I want to spend time as relaxed as I like to be, not bothered by trends. “I sleep because I want to.” No matter how busy the world is,“ I want to proceed slowly.” I’m determined to continue sleeping. When I take pictures, I always think of my style. While taking pictures to enter this competition, I paid special attention to motifs and structure. It was important for me to take them in my style. How can I express the act of sleeping in an easy-to-understand way? If I just used pajamas and a pillow, all the pictures would be alike. I tried different patterns so that the viewer would enjoy them. I don’t think viewers should think about the photographer’s ideas or intentions when they look at pictures. They might think after they get interested in the pictures. The first step is just to look at my pictures. I hope I can communicate my ’style’ to them, and they feel it even few.
Selecting judge: Kotaro Iizawa
This is a step up from her previous work, which was chosen as one of the good works in the previous contest. The concept of how to photograph is crucial to this kind of work, and her concept is more thought-through this time and thus her pictures are more enjoyable for the viewer. She took the pictures in her local Osaka as well as in Tokyo, and her trip to Tokyo paid off. Most of all, Ms. Sato’s humorous personality has given power to her pictures. Her facial expressions and poses that make us laugh come out naturally, and I hope she will challenge different situations while developing what she has now. Among the majority of humorless works, her pictures were exceptionally entertaining.
