Statement

あなたから離れた場所で再び眼差しを交わす – 佳作

There is a lot of information scattered about a person's face, and sometimes it feels like that information is thickly covering up a person's inner self. If we assume that the essence of a person is the part that can only be read from the real face that emerges when we peel off the labels that stick to a person's face, then it is as if that essence is projected onto the tree. Sometimes I come across. Although there are certainly trees there, each one looks towards me with a unique quality, and there are moments when I feel that our gazes do meet. When I caught that gaze, I thought it would be no wonder that there was a special tree that seemed to exist just for one person. I would like to pursue such a possibility.

Profile

Kazuki Harada

Born in 2001, from Osaka　KYOTO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS　

Jury selection

The work presented for this award by Kazuki Harada was food for thought and resonated with me. Kazuki Harada photographed portraits of people (maybe friends) and presented them side by side with surface images of trees mostly including bark in the rectangle frame. I liked these simple play offs as they do naturally pull your mind towards Kazuki’s written thoughts around the work which is basically surface facades and the gaze of a person alongside what was described as the gaze of a tree. Both living, both hold equal complexities and their own surfaces and I can see immediately both seen, respected and photographed with the same level of care. These are delicate images now stuck in time as both plants and people will move forward into their own futures and these photographic images will remain dormant or paused, like a seed waiting for water.

Links

• Instagram：@hara_tyan428