Yasuyuki Kurose
“ UNTITLED ”
1998Excellence Award
ARTIST STATEMENT
UNTITLED
I photograph because I am attracted to obscenity seen in Tokyo. I press the shutter whenever I see reality in the city and women. The strobe light is flashy, and it is an event in itself. If I, being attracted to a particular place, take a picture of it, the picture will be the face of Tokyo...its portrait. Leaving everything to take its own course, I am not bothered by any theory, but try to take pictures in evidence. I click shutters whenever my intuition tells me to do so, and then pictures begin to walk by themselves, paying no attention to my intention. All I do is to follow them.
Selecting judge: Nobuyoshi Araki
He has guts, and that's great. His photos are not exactly innovative or futuristic, but they have the most important power in photography, that is, to expose the other. It is different from a documentary perspective.
His works have the “power of photography,” which I think is the ability to get into the other or the other world. Other entries are pictures taken entirely from the photographer's personal perspective, and so they can't avoid femininity. I admit that I like the photographic world of emotions. However, this winning work is not bothered at all by emotional opinions, such as “I feel comfortable,” or “I don't feel comfortable about this.” It just comes straight into my heart in its Mincho Gothic style. I say “That's great,” and nothing else.
1998Excellence Award