“On her skin”
People live and let live amidst all of creation. Awareness of our modest origins has been beaten down by the chaos of urban living and obscured by concrete and we become desensitized to our original natures. The “her” of “On her skin” refers to the earth. The human forms that seem to be floating in space are not synthetic forms. Rather they project themselves in space and have paused to hear her breathing. These people are all of us daring to pause from our hustle and bustle of exploiting her to experience a moment of tranquility. Once more we linger awhile over her and try to communicate with her.
For me a photograph is able to capture on its surface an unlimited depth in a living yet unreal space. And the force and energy emanating from the inside of the subject is distilled on the print through me the photographer. Those are overlapping with my expectations.
Winning a New Cosmos of Photography Award feels like getting a ticket, and perhaps now I am heading to the ticket counter. It took me a long time of trial and error experiment to express my style and concept for what was initially a theme much too broad in scope. I am overjoyed that a work that concisely conveys my style was selected. And now with my one-way ticket in hand I look forward to creating new work.
1992: Graduated Nihon University College of Art Department of Photography
2002: Debut solo exhibition “boukyaku kyokusen” (curves of oblivion) at Gallery Hokari (Kita-aoyama)
2004: Solo exhibition at Art Space MOTER (Hachobori) “yume no naka no taion” (body heat in a dream)
2005: Winner Tokyo Competition “Higashi no fukuro” (The eastern owl)
Selecting judge: Fumio Nanjo
An enigmatic photograph that thoroughly transcends the world of reality. I think this photograph looks like a picture of a mirage but this photograph shows people and the sky over the surface of a Bolivian lake. Photography of clouds is common, but this achieves something different - I haven’t seen this sort of composition in which people float within the clouds. The use of a light color scheme also contributes to work that skillfully expresses the other-ordinary. This is work of an artist with originality.
If I were to say what I would like to see more of, it would be for a print two or three times larger than the submission. Also, it would have benefited from a bit better mounting. The surface is wavy. Slip-shod processing is really noticeable with a sensitive photo such as this. For example, she should make an effort to give it more flatness as like mounting it on aluminum.
