THEME #10Winners2020MAR

MUSIC

GRAND PRIX

DETAIL

Statement

Musicless Media Love

Sound is extremely limited when I'm in the water, but I can still hear. Is the sound coming from outside the water? Or is it coming from inside me? I feel a strange sensation like those sounds are mixing together and I'm feeling them with my entire body. I've never been encased in ice, but the image of an object thrown out there and frozen in time under ice or snow seems extremely musical to me. In my heart, I can hear sounds along with the image. I wonder if anyone else can relate to this.
I don't know if it's possible to express sound through a photograph. A photograph can't actually play a melody—it can't even make noise. Then the only thing it can do is to evoke a musical emotion within you, the viewer.

Profile

Yuji Hyashi

Born in Osaka in 1979.
Graduated from the photography department at Visual Arts Osaka in 2000.
Received an honorable mention from Shin Akiyama in the 8th 1_WALL photography competition.
Based in Paris from 2014 to 2018.
Currently living in Osaka.

Jury selection

As I looked at the submissions this time, I was reminded that while photographs and music may seem very far apart, they are actually close. No matter which submission I looked at, I was able to find at least one thing with "something musical" about it. But very few were able to develop that musicality over multiple pieces. Perhaps this means that even the photographer doesn't fully grasp what that "something musical" is. It might be something that affects the act of taking a photograph on a subconscious level. That said, it's not like I have a clear understanding of that "something musical" when I select submissions either. I can only judge that based on my own thoughts and sensations about music that arise when I see a photograph. The composition of Yuji Hayashi's work is simple, but the way it evokes the unlikely yet possible relationship between sound and ice was interesting to me. The mysterious theme of frozen music seems to emerge from it, stoking the imagination in various ways.