THEME #46Winners2023AUG
PLANT LIFE
SHORT LIST
Statement
Knock on wood [Honorable Mention]
I decided to relieve the physical and mental fatigue accumulated from my daily work by looking at something beautiful. With a vague awareness that something beautiful was "nature," I went outside. I saw them everywhere I went. They spread their arms out and raised them high. They were solemn, free, beautiful and unique. I thought I might get a bee in my bonnet after I released the shutter.
Profile
藤沢海人
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Jury selection
I was on the verge of rejecting this work for the purposes of this award as the images did not really speak to me fully. But when grasping and understanding the text that accompanied the work. I suddenly viewed this work in a different light and wanted to acknowledge what has been created and why.
I suddenly fell in deep respect for Kaito. I like how the work has come about as a reaction to something else and in Kaito’s case, making pictures in nature was a way to heal and replenish after being what sounds like exhausted after the daily toll of another type of daily work and it felt like being starved also of natural beauty enabled to Kaito to absorb it within him or herself and the camera.
I understood this as perhaps many who make things or are drawn to certain things not always as stated. I like that Kaito could have easily said in the statement that this work is about nature, or about this or that. But to say, the catalyst for this work came from elsewhere. A place of exhaustion, looking, seeing and experiencing something else and in this case also photographing what was carrying him or her.
The images almost fell away for me knowing this as so often in life the journey is better than the destination. I am happy to know how liberating this experience was too and the freedom it offered.
Thank you, Kaito, for submitting this honest and entry and the reasons what gravitated you towards your subject. I hope you are feeling better and rested these days.
