Canon global

-You’ve won the Hibino Katsuhiko Award. Were you confident that you would win?

If I had thought that I would fail to begin with, I wouldn’t have entered. I expected that somehow my work would be noticed. But my work is a kind of “slush,” so it isn’t suitable for all competitions. I went to see the touring exhibition in Osaka of last year’s prize-winning works, and also I knew who the prize winners in the past were. Therefore, I assumed that my work might look a little odd and out of place. To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure whether my work would be selected or not.
On the other hand, I expected that I could seize the chance, because in the case of New Cosmos of Photography, each judge awards a prize. I was just praying that some judge would get some feeling from my work.

-When did you begin to take photographs?

To tell the truth, it was last year. As I’m fond of pictures and poems, I’ve always been involved in expressing ideas or feelings through words. But photography was left untouched. I decided to start because I had an increasingly urge to do something new in the genre of photography. Nevertheless, I don’t have a camera yet. To take a photo, including my prize winning work, I’m using disposable film with a lens. I buy a new one each time, and when I’m finished with it, I develop the reel of film. I do that repeatedly.
Why? I like expressing ideas and feelings through words, because a pen is all I need. Ultimately, if I could express myself without using any tool, it would be the best. Therefore, when I take a photo, I want to be able to work as lightly as possible. That’s why a disposable camera is best.
Image quality might be a standard by which we can determine whether a photo is good or bad, but I believe that there is something else that is far more important. It is how I can cut out what I find interesting and put it into a photo with the least deviation from my true feelings. That’s what I’m trying with photography. I’m only reacting to interesting forms, compositions, scenery, a person, or relationship of one thing to another. For that purpose, it is important to work light. There’s nothing so light as working with a disposable camera.

-Will you continue using a disposable camera in the future?

Any alternative tool will do as long as I can work light. I’m a little interested in digital cameras. It’s possible that I’ll be using one. My solo exhibition has been scheduled to be held in Osaka regularly from June this year. I’ll show my photo works in combination with writings.
If my winning the prize has made a difference, my enthusiasm for photography has grown stronger, I think. I’ve been engaged in other genres of expression, and from my point of view, I feel that photography is considerably different. Agility plays an essential part. Life itself seems to be represented in a photo. It’s an attractive factor, and I feel it quite suits me.

-Is there any artist you like or influenced you?

I’ll name some of my favorite works of expression, though the genres vary. First comes “Mousou no mori,” an essay of Kyoko Kishida(*1). It seems that what is real is referred to, but the world of delusions gets unnoticed. In “Wani-kun Igurau e iku(Japanese title)” by Janosch(*2), reality and fantasy are mixed up and there is synergy between the two. Shinro Otake’s(*3) “Zen-kei” was his solo exhibition last year, and I was deeply impressed. Of jazz, I like “Catapult,” an album of Mats Gustafsson(*4), a baritone sax player.

*1 : Kyoko Kishida
Actress, voice actress, and writer of children’s stories. Born in Tokyo in 1930 and died at the age of 77 in 2006. Her deceased father is playwright Kunio Kishida. Kyoko Kishida was widely active in movies, stage, and television dramas. As a voice actress, she narrated and voiced in many different works such as providing the voice of Moomin Troll. She also wrote many essays as well as translations.

*2 : Janosch
Children’s book writer and illustrator. Born in Poland in 1931. After moving to Germany, Janosch began to publish children’s books in the 1960s. He is self-taught, and his heart-warming animal characters became very popular worldwide. He has published more than 200 works to date.

*3 : Shinro Otake
Artist of contemporary art. Born in Tokyo in 1955. Shinro Otake held solo exhibitions and began to work in earnest in the 1980s. He produces works crossing over different genres, such as painting, photography, collage, and the three-dimensional. In 2006, his large-scale retrospective “Shinro Otake: Zen-kei 1955–2006” was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT).

*4 : Mats Gustafsson
Saxophone player. Born in Sweden in 1964. Mats Gustafsson began to work in earnest in the 1980s. He has frequently worked with jazz players in Chicago in live performances and recording sessions since 1990s.