New Cosmos of Photography 2011 Tokyo Exhibition
Report on the open-committee meeting
Grand Prize selection open-committee meeting: Nov.11, 2011(Fri.)
The Grand Prize selection open committee of the New Cosmos of Photography 2011 (the 34th competition) met in front of a public audience on November 11 to select the Grand Prize winner from among five Excellence Award finalists—Maya Akashika, Yoshiyuki Okuyama, Masanori Kito, Patrick Tsai, and Mariko Yamada. After the finalists gave their presentations and took questions from the judges, the judges decided to award the New Cosmos of Photography 2011 Grand Prize to Maya Akashika. The selection meeting was held in the first-floor hall of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Overall Evaluation
General comments on the 34th competition
Katsumi Omori
What bothered me that many portfolios had too many photos. The pattern I saw over and over again was massive aimless portfolios in which each photo had no power at all. I simply want to see a variety of things. This can be said about motifs, methodologies, and concepts. There were fewer works this time that made me feel I was seeing something totally new. Overall, there is a lack of love. I think there should be more love shown toward photography. How this is done is maybe by looking more at other people’s works, learning more about the history of photography, or pushing the envelope of technological possibilities. In general, the collections felt trivial to me. Maybe “weak” is the better term. I think what persists in a work is what is born out of experiences, like times of exuberance or when feeling particularly good, or, conversely, when you’ve faced a horrible experience. This is true if the feel is unique, even if what the photo captures itself is patently familiar. I couldn’t see works that embrace those experiences. Perhaps we are in a transition period. We have wars going on, massive earthquakes, and radiation leaks in some places. We can’t afford to be insensitive in the midst of all this. I’m not saying that people should necessarily take these things up as a motif; what I’d like to see are people expanding photography in ways that consider the role of photography and what photography can do in today’s world.
Masafumi Sanai
Book people have to bind books. And, in order to bind their books, they need to increase the number of copies. I’ve recently been increasing the number of copies of my photos too, even though in the past I’d just put out 10 copies. In reality, 10 copies would be enough, but I make more to give as swag to people. However, the people entering the New Cosmos of Photography shouldn’t worry about any obligations like that. When you start making money from photography, then think about the promotion side.
The other thing is that many people like to express their feelings or thoughts in photos. That isn’t photography. The same goes for sequencing.
Noi Sawaragi
In terms of a trend, which is continuing on from last year, I sensed there were a lot of photos taken with the idea of a mysterious moment dwelling within the ordinary life. These are works with a glimmer, which can be captured only in a photo that appears in a monotonous vista or the form of a beloved lover or the moment the seasons change.
But, for me, this feels in one sense like a cliché. That’s because everything—good, bad, what have you—
has some kind of presence even if it isn’t captured in a photo. I can’t help but feel there’s no point in expressly selecting things at this level.
Instead, we should train our antenna at what started out at this glimmer but has passed through that dimension. It could be what is present beyond the glimmer, or it could be that which can only be called lost time, or it could be something unconscious that not even the photographer has yet grasped. In any case, what should be selected are works where creating a world at the point of departure from the ordinary oozes from the photograph. So that we, despite ourselves, respond with our beeping antenna.
I am neither a photographer nor a photo critic, so I don’t have a particular way of looking at photos. It’s about whether the work has a certain texture, like you are extending, even a little, beyond the photo even though it is a photo. It’s about whether the work makes you forget it’s a photo despite being a photo. From this standpoint, this year was more interesting than last.
Minoru Shimizu
Photos taken at the death of a lover or the death of a father can be seen, but the sentiments are fairly uniform. For example, would it be acceptable to photograph the heavy realities of a death with hackneyed angles and lights, such as in “photos of funeral” or “articles of a deceased grandmother?” Style alone is pointless. The same is true of photos of romance. I wonder whether people really look at their own photos. There were a lot of photos that got a chuckle, but they too were predictable. In other words, whether you laugh or cry, sentiment has become standardized, and that scares me. What were good were works that stood out by questioning the very experience of viewing photos. The premise has collapsed long ago that shooting the concrete au naturel is photography. Photography is not axiomatic. That’s why I think the attraction of photography, be it analog or digital, is in its directness. That’s because photography is not painting. But, I fear that photography’s directness is being standardized and the power it once had is in decline.
Hiromix
If you compare it with other contests, the quality of New Cosmos of Photography entrants is high. But, I felt fewer entrants were directly confronting photography than I had expected. Many used digital processing and others fabricated very polished looking works. That’s fine in itself, but the most important thing is the photo. There were few photos this year that showed emotion. I believe the photos that excite the viewer and move the heart are those where the photographer’s emotions are evident.
There were also few photos of people. In any age, there is demand and recognition for people who can take beautiful portraits. The number of gloomy works bothered me too. People are pulled toward works that are outstandingly beautiful and attractive and energetic. The same is true of songs. Although it is easy to moan, people are really struggling try to encourage others with cheerful music.
Consideration for the viewer is also important, and your humanity and your humility toward life will show up in your photos. I recommend trying to look at your own photos objectively and see what others might think and making your own propositions instead of chasing trends. And, if you get lost, seek out the advice of someone with good sense.
