Canon global

For me, the photographs I took are a kind of life testament. Without photographs almost everything would be forgotten - and by everything I mean all of experience from pleasure to sorrow. And while it may sometimes seem cruel at the time, we have to be ready to preserve our experiences in a photograph. For me, the act of preserving experience in photographs is a source of constant joy and an essential part of my life.

These photographs cover the half-lifetime from my high school years to April 2005. Conventional film photographs were scanned into a computer and brought back to life. The photos were digitalized and then using the artificial intelligence of the computer, the data was restored to photographic form. There is a similarity with the brain, when you search the filaments of memory the brain brings back the image at a given time. Digital technology is very congenial to the act of preserving memory that motivates me to take pictures because it possesses realism and speed. I want to record as many of my memories as possible and analog just isn’t able to keep up. There’s not enough time - life might not be that long.

Selecting judge: Daido Moriyama

I’m always talking about quality over quantity when it comes to photography, but while judging this time I asked myself if quality alone can be good enough. In the end I concluded that prolific output shows intense passion, and the passion for taking pictures and the quality of the result might be commensurate.

The photographer uses both color and black and white to carefully chart his own physiology overt time. The great number of photos functions to form a composite of his psyche. The photos are not in the least sentimental or emotional. More than anything they show his passion for photographing the totality of his existence. If I have one criticism I would like him to make more effort for effective color usage. In this work, I find a use of volume worthy of praise.