Statement

Gojiai

“Gojiai”, this is one of Japanese-specific expressions. It means take care of oneself and love oneself.

Since COVID-19 was spreading, I have come to turn my mind to familiar things than before. That allowed me to take a good look at the common nearby things in everyday life.

These, “Gojiai”, are self-portraits that I took in my hometown Ishikawa and my house in Tokyo.

The most important photo is the one which I took of myself at living room in my parents’ home. I didn’t know poppies which I got to like after moving up to Tokyo were blooming there then. And amazingly, in the photo, I wore poppies-printed shirt. I only found out about that purely by accident.
I take pictures to save MY moment.
By continuing that, I come to be able to love myself little by little.
I’ll keep Gojiai from now on.

Profile

Tanaka Ueno

Everything will be gone someday. I feel sad about that.
That's why I want to leave my feeling and the present moment I can never get it back , in photographs.

Jury selection

I was delighted to see that the everyday self-portrait overlapped with the poppy petals that had fallen from the vase, giving it a fresh impression.

Links

• Instagram：@tanaka_ueno
  Twitter：@tanaka_ueno