Ayako Kashiwa
“ The New World of the Far East ”
1998Grand Prize
ARTIST STATEMENT
The New World of the Far East
The old handwritten letter read: “Kashiwa, never stop taking photos”. Those words still resonate with me today. The sender of the letter is no longer in this world. He was Tetsuya Ishida, a painter and a classmate of mine in university. We were both contest winners, albeit in different categories, and we were friends who visited each other's exhibitions and encouraged each other. It's been ages since our sudden parting. … Almost twenty years have passed and I've yet to send my reply: “I quit taking photos. Sorry for letting you down.”
In 1998, I created The New World of the Far East collection. The eighty-eight A3 pages are as heavy as a blunt weapon. Both physically and emotionally. I opened it up for the first time in many years. The passion of those days, and the subsequent anguish, frustration, and regret assailed me, cloaked in the faint scent of the photo developer. Ishida's words began to reverberate at the back of my ears. How would he react if I had said: “I wonder if I can still get back into photography”? I hope he'd laugh at me and say: “Kashiwa, your reply is way overdue”. Said with those eyes that seem to see through everything.
Selecting judge: Kotaro Iizawa
Her characteristic strength is her right decision to select and develop images, which her antenna catches from the widely scattered chaotic daily life on an island nation in Asia. Consequently, the shady atmosphere of a show-tent in downtown Asakusa fills the whole picture. This time she has submitted both an album and a collection of single photos, and I found the album far more interesting. She is outstanding at compiling her pictures into an album, for example, in arranging both color and monochrome pictures, and creating the flow of images and breaks in between. Her work reminded me of Shuji Yamada's masterpiece in 1970s, “Nihon-mura (Japan Village).” I suppose that Japan will remain a huge village at the end of 1990s.
PROFILE
Ayako Kashiwa
| 1972 | Born in Chiba Prefecture |
| 1996 | Graduated from the Department of Visual Communication Design, College of Art and Design, Musashino Art University |
| 1997 | Received an Honorable Mention Award at the 15th New Cosmos of Photography for the work Far East Received an Honorable Mention Award at the 16th New Cosmos of Photography for the work The Far East Club Won a 1997 New Cosmos of Photography Incentive Prize |
| 1998 | Received an Excellence Award at the 17th New Cosmos of Photography for the work The New World of the Far East Won the 1998 New Cosmos of Photography Grand Prize |
1998 to 2008 Worked as a freelance photographer
Solo Exhibitions
| 1998 | Far East Streets Without Names (ArtGraph Gallery, Ginza) |
| 1999 | Runaway Angel '99 (P3, Tochoji temple, Yotsuya) |
| 2003 | Water Side (Keyaki no Hall, Chiba) |
キュレーション
| 1998～2002 | Designed the solo exhibitions of photographer Issei Suda's works (selected, edited, and organized the layout of the exhibited works) |
1998Grand Prize