“As if I were alive.”
I rush to photograph so hastily that I lose my physical balance. Even the thousandth part of minute pressing the shutter makes me impatient, because I know that “this moment” will disappear instantly. Probably I’m taking pictures to prove that I am living at this moment and print it in my memory. Anyway, I am not so concerned about the quality of pictures, and I feel quite satisfied when I succeed in expressing the smell, time, warmth, gentleness, and sadness at that particular moment. In order to express those feelings, I have chosen photography; it is a device as well as an art that has the best potential to represent reality. What I would like to do is to take pictures of my life or myself, when I am sometimes tired of doing things, scared, or happy. Life is real to me, and reality interests me.
Selecting judge: Nobuyoshi Araki
The work by Momo Okabe has a message about a bright life to come, though not so strong. It says that to live is to be gentle. Father’s silhouette is very good indeed. It shows that to live is to live quietly and to die is to die quietly; being dead as if alive. There is a superb view from the window.
