Ken Tazima
“ Skygazers ”
2019Excellence Award
ARTIST STATEMENT
Skygazers
It started out as simple curiosity.
When the weather turns strange or heavy rains fall, when a typhoon blows, or when it is hotter than normal, we are told the location where the observations were taken and the numbers measured.
What instruments in what kinds of places make these measurements? That's what I wanted to see.
Before I knew it, I was going all over the country, seeking out the silhouettes of weather instruments.
To villages deep in the mountains, to the northernmost cape, to islands reached by ship only twice a week. In doing so, my eyes took in a wondrous variety of landscapes, one after another.
As I walked and searched, all I expected to capture in my photos were the weather instruments. But what I sensed the whole time was the redolence of people leading their lives in every corner of this island nation.
And even now, the instruments are there gazing silently at the sky alongside people's daily lives.
Entries form: Ten books (A5 portrait) with 1,034 photos
Selecting judge: Yulin Lee
For this work, the photographer traversed Japan from north to south and photographed AMeDAS weather observation installations. The work recalls the global environmental issues that concern people all over the world. These observation instruments can be thought of as the earth's protectors. That's because they collect observational data to predict the weather and to alert and warn us. Their existence is not well known and they go about their work humbly in the background.
Mr. Tazima is a white-collar worker, but I think his existence is, in one way, much like the AMeDAS installations. That's because his existence is important in supporting our society. This work created by Mr. Tazima, a person who humbly supports our society, leaves a record of the AMeDAS installations that protect us. It was from this sense that I selected his work.
PROFILE
Ken Tazima
| 1974 | Born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture Since then, He have relocated to Hiroshima, Urawa, Sendai, Akita, Tokyo, Matsue, Tottori, and Yokosuka, where He is presently |
| 1997 | Graduated from the School of Engineering, Tohoku University |
2019Excellence Award