The 14th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography 2005
Report on the open-selection meeting
Public selection : Dec.7.2005(WED)
The Grand Prize Selection Open-committee Meeting to select the 2005 Grand Prize winner was held on December 7th. Judges and spectators packed the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, where the event was held. The air was thick with anticipation as award winners made presentations and took questions from the judges. After a spirited discussion that went over the scheduled time, Akiko Ozawa was selected as the 2005 Grand Prize winner.
Ms. Ozawa was praised by judge Nobuyoshi Araki for her photographs that “capture the joy of daily life” and by judge Daido Moriyama for her “unique perspective that only a woman can express.” Ms. Ozawa was awarded JPY 1 million and the right to hold her own solo exhibition of new work at the Canon New Cosmos of Photography 2006 Exhibition. In addition, Canon presented Encouragement Awards and a Canon IXY Digital 60 digital camera to three entrants: Shoichi Takahashi, Seungwoo Yang, and Toshifumi Tafuku.
Overall Evaluation
At the 14th open-selection meeting of “New Cosmos of Photography”, the winning works of the 2006 (28th competition) were evaluated.
Overview of 2006 (28th competition)
Nobuyoshi Araki
There were a number of fine pieces of natural and urban scenes as well as other themes. But considering the age we live in, what I really want to see is more photography that capture moments in people’s daily lives because those are the things that capture the very essence of being alive. I want to see photographs that capture those vibrant and intense moments that express the joy of being alive.
Kotaro Iizawa
Like past competitions, a lot of entries consisted of a great number of photos. There is a misperception that a lot of pictures form a style, but I want people to think their entries through and narrow down the number of photos to the smallest possible number and down to a single photo if they can. Photographers need to start by formulating their ideas and then totally commit to bringing them out in their pictures - otherwise they just end up satisfying their own egos. I want to emphasize that when photographers create photos they always need to think deeply about what they want to show to the viewer. Also, people seem to think that New Cosmos of Photography is looking for a particular style of photograph. But what we like are completely unexpected photos that fit no particular mold.
Fumio Nanjo
I felt that there were more conceptual works blurring the boundary between photography and art, freely conceived, and possessing a particular approach. As always, there were entries consisting of a lot of photographs - and I would like to see entrants work on presenting their ideas more economically. Photography today means being the author of a complete visual presentation that brings together a number of elements, including binding and design.
Daido Moriyama
Overall, I felt that most of the entries have well structured their original ideas. Nonetheless, I also got the sense that one could randomly draw ten or so entrants and find in them a general pattern that characterizes almost all the submissions. When considering how collections were put together and the photographic sense behind them, I found very few pieces where I felt the photographer was committed and determined to express his or her artistic vision. In other words, I felt that most of the photographs were nothing more than ordinary photos of everyday life. Don’t simply take pictures of everyday life, instead find the one thing that fascinates you the most and work at bringing it out and contrasting it with all the other everyday things around it. At first glance I saw a lot of photos I liked, but alas after closer scrutiny none ever made it to the final selection.
William Eggleston
Looking at thousands of photographs created by young Japanese photographers was a wonderful honor. It was extremely unfortunate, however, that there was not enough time to carefully look at all the submissions. I looked at many pieces created with digital cameras, and looking at them made me realize that we are entering an era of new possibilities for print photography.
Mika Ninagawa
I looked at submissions in the hope of discovering work with the potential for changing the entrant’s life in the same way that winning an excellence award changed mine. When I won my award there were a lot of entries whose basic elements - how albums were put together, the binding, and so on - needed a lot of improvement, but today works are presented very skillfully. I’m no longer even sure what makes a good photograph. When I see a good photograph, I know it’s good, but I’m not sure what makes it so. Another thing is that instead of submitting a huge number of photos I would prefer seeing works that narrow down the number of photos according to a set of very strict personal artistic standards. That is, the selection process is crucial. Trying to find something new is hard when all the entries seem to follow the same pattern, and I unfortunately end up simply picking whichever seem to me the most appealing.
