“Telepathy”
When I take photographs, I don’t decide on a specific theme. What I notice are slightly awkward situations, such as moments the subject doesn’t want people to see or moments of bad behavior. I don’t photograph extraordinary situations or unusual people. Instead, I capture little incidents that could happen to anyone. Maybe I have a perverse way of looking at things, but situations like these are what excite me the most.
For “Telepathy,” I deliberately selected those everyday photographs that approached the awkwardness that I felt, in order to create an even more “mysterious world.”
For me, taking photographs is surprisingly easy. I do it almost unconsciously. I set everything on my compact camera and SLR camera to auto and just snap away in much the way Zatoichi slashes away with his sword. I don’t want my photographs to be restricted by the photographer paradigm. I also simply think that the impact on the people viewing the photographs is important.
2005: Earns an Honorable Mention in the New Cosmos of Photography
2008: Lives in Tokyo and works as a freelance photographer
Selecting judge: Katsumi Omori
He has taken pictures of lots of things that can be photographed yet usually aren’t. Overall, the work is rich. It also has the power to keep the viewer engaged until the very last page. It can be interpreted in various ways: as a documentary of Tokyo or Japan; as something that captures the interestingness of the existence of people, animals, or objects; or as a collection of loose, decisive moments. I’m not sure about the title, though. I know what he’s trying to do, and can understand why he wanted to call it “Telepathy,” but I actually think this title sits just a little bit too well. Taking pictures of the same thing can become tiring, but this work doesn’t exude that. There’s humor in it, too. I like it.
