Hirohiko Ikeda
“ at negev 1997 ”
1998Excellence Award
ARTIST STATEMENT
at negev 1997
Most of these pictures were taken at Sde Boker in Israel's Negev Desert in my spare time, when I was working at a Scotch tape factory and a chicken shack. I asked my friends there to help me carry things like mirrors and benzine. They even modeled for me. After finishing work early in the afternoon, we didn't have much to do in the middle of the desert. As the local people were usually bored, they seemed to enjoy cooperating with me. I think I was very lucky to have encountered photography. When I first bought a camera four and a half years ago, I didn't expect that such a small device would give me opportunities for adventure. (It is the same camera that I brought to Israel.) Also, I could meet attractive people I couldn't have met if I hadn't been taking pictures. I plan to take as many pictures as possible this year, and would like to go around East Europe or Africa next year, taking pictures, though it is not definite yet.
Selecting judge: Fumio Nanjo
The combination of the scenery and the arrangement of copy is good. The work is surrealistic, and its slight humor conveys the dramaturgy of cultural dissimilarity. Also, I feel a mysterious power as if something demonic was coexisting. I ask myself what it is, and it makes me anxious to see his next work. There seems to be a quality shared with Bernard Faucon's photography. The balance between documentary and technique will be a key to his future development.
1998Excellence Award