Kohei Koyama “Journey Under the Midnight Sun” | 2008 Excellence Award winning work

ARTIST STATEMENT

Journey Under the Midnight Sun

A new technology was born that made it possible to do things that had been difficult to achieve with analog photography. With the development of digital photography, the manipulation of images is now a familiar activity to everybody, and it is now possible to control images to a high level with ease. Analog photography should therefore be freed of all the constraints that currently restrict it.

I constructed an ideal world.

I am extremely grateful for being selected. This prize will really spur me on in my future photographic pursuits.

Entries form: Matted and framed, 1457 mm x 1192 mm / 742 x 612 mm, gelatin silver prints, 8 pieces

Selecting judge: Fumio Nanjo

Although the pictures are monochrome, they offer an incredibly rich view of the world. By layering various images on top of each other by hand, he has created a fairly complex, fantastic, and surrealistic world.
This world is beautiful and enigmatic. He has a lot of imagination. He has deliberately created scenes that don't actually exist, and the fact that the pictures do not fail even when blown up to this scale indicates that they are very well composed. He has included both story-like pictures and pictures that have the beauty that comes from monochrome shadowing. He has included both types of pictures. He also knows how to show off their quality. He has used frames and mats to expertly control the way the pictures look. He really knows how to finish off a work.

PROFILE

Kohei Koyama

August 22, 1984: Born in Hyogo Prefecture
2005: Holds a duo exhibition called “Journey under the midnight sun” at Gallery Sen Space
2005: Wins an excellence award in the 7th Hasselblad School Photo Contest
2007: Exhibits at a group exhibition called “Ten2.”
2008: Wins the grand prize for his graduation project at Osaka University of Arts
2008: Graduates from the Photography Department, Faculty of Arts, Osaka University of Arts
2008: Joins the Ground Self-Defense Forces; continues producing photographic works