“untitled -study-”
Sometimes I wonder who I am. My identity resides somewhere between Japan and America, childhood and adulthood, and here and there. I think that this sort of drifting ambiguous lifestyle could be acceptable. At present I may look like these vague photos. A camera is a wonderful device with which to depict reality. Looking at familiar things around me from a different viewpoint or from different angles, I become aware of the discoveries that a camera can make. Only after printing the film do I realize what was in my mind then. A camera is the only tool that can make my inner feelings visible and is very important to me because I can see what is in my mind. I would like to continue using photographic expressions to better understand myself from different viewpoints.
Selecting judge: Fumio Nanjo
It is fresh---this a quality of transparency, brightness, and light. The pictures look ambiguous, but I recognize what they are. Although there is no grandiose message, the photographer’s view is clear and stable. It is unclear in a sense if it is explicable in words, but it is her method of expression and how she views things. Looking at things, one cannot grasp their outlines since they are vague and shaky. Ambiguity is in today’s uncertainties and transparent evil - I’m not saying that what is photographed is evil - it is the trend of the times. The subjects are shown only partially. I wonder if it is because she is looking closely at the parts in detail, or if she can’t or doesn’t want to see the whole. Does the message “YOU CAN MAKE ME HAPPY” come from her desire to depend on others? Her words are in a happy mode. The gloves are dancing, too. When we are in a gloomy era, such a viewpoint seems meaningful. There are similarly ambiguous and whitish works, and they are abstract. I do not know which is better, to make it abstract or to keep it realistic. Both have meanings, but to me, those left with forms and a recognizable look more powerful. Such pictures stimulate my imagination and I perceive different meanings in them. They seem to question their meanings. In other words, “Abstract works seem ubiquitous,” but Ms. Shinzawa’s work “looks abstract but isn’t.” It walks on a thin line somehow. That is why I highly evaluate her work. I like this kind of work.
