- This is your first appearance as a judge for New Cosmos of Photography. What kind of works do you expect to see?

I wI expect to meet works that have potential for the future.

- What kind of works do you rate highly or don’t you appreciate? Would you give the applicants some advice?

I’d like to meet a work that makes me exclaim: “It’s incredible that there’s such a photo,” and it makes me sleepless.

- What do you feel about the current photo culture?

I think taking a photo is getting easier and easier. In such circumstances, we have to think more about the meaning of showing photos as one’s work, and what it means to view them.

- Who is your favorite photographer or a photographer to whom you have paid attention recently?

Jacques Henri Lartigue (*1) and Boris Mikhailov (*2).
Boris lives near my house in Berlin. I sometimes visit him at home and have meals with him. He’s always thinking of his work, and whenever I meet him, he asks for my comments and impressions about his work. His hungry spirit always impresses me. I’m afraid he’s not so very interested in my work.

- Please tell me about a project you are working on now.

I’m working now at a beach.

- What are your present concerns?

Rock-climbing, cooking, chemistry, and countries in Africa, and the Middle and Near East.

*1 Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894 - 1986)
Jacques Henri Lartigue was born into a wealthy family in Paris, and was enthusiastic about photography from boyhood. Although he continued producing original photos from his personal viewpoint, he kept photography as a hobby. He was an obscure photographer for a long time, but came to receive global fame in the 1960s. He is regarded as one of the photographers representing the 20th century.

*2 Boris Mikhailov
Boris Mikhailove was born in the Ukraine in 1938. He started photography at the age of 28. At the beginning, the opportunity to show his work was restricted under the socialist regime, but in the 1990s, his work came to be introduced in Western countries. His work featuring a dispassionate gaze at the social situation and his humorous approach to a subject with human warmth are rated highly. In 2000, he received the “Hasselblad Award,” which is a global prize presented to a photographer. He acted as a judge for New Cosmos of Photography in 2006 (the 29th competition).