THEME #30Winners2022JAN

TOUCH

GRAND PRIX

DETAIL

Statement

Skinship

Skinship is a Japanese word that describes the skin-to-skin relationship between a mother and a child or family. Through an experience of loving touch, a child learns caring for others. Japanese skinship is considered to be important for strengthening the bond of family and also for the child’s healthy development.
I gave birth to my son in 2012 and started making self-portraits, somehow, in the chaos of everyday life flying by. There seemed no boundary between our bodies, a symbiotic union.

Profile

Takako Kido

Takako Kido was born in Kochi, Japan in 1970 and received a B.A. in Economics from Soka University in 1993. She graduated from the International Center of Photography in 2003, remained in New York working as a B&W printer and retoucher while also exhibiting and publishing a series of photo-essay projects for the Kochi Shimbun newspaper. She returned to Japan in 2008 and currently lives in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. She presents her work in solo and group exhibitions and at slide shows both in Japan and overseas.

Photolucida Critical Mass 2021 Top 50 Photographers
Gomma Grant 2021 finalist
2021 Lucie Scholarship Program, Emerging Artist, Honorable Mention

Jury selection

Judge: Lina Scheynius

From the first moment I saw this photo it has stayed in my mind. It is such a unique and strong image. It's a self portrait too, which is something close to my heart and work. It is also breaking taboos and it's doing it with so much beauty. It is a confronting image, despite being the most natural thing in the world. Breast feeding is not something we are very used to seeing, and breast feeding a child and not a baby even less so. And yet when we think about the subject touch this is where we first experience it. The touch between a mother and the child is our first touch and it's sacred and life giving. Nudity is another thing that is getting harder and harder to show in art, and I think this kind of tender and strong work needs to be highlighted and seen.