Selecting judge: Kotaro Iizawa

As a Record of a Traveling Entertainer, he has created an impeccably rich group of images. As a photo collection, I can sense his strength in the photograph layouts. Not just rough, there’s also a very careful, vulnerable vision to it. The photos of people are nice, but how he subtly inserted photos of scenery and indoors that give off a feeling of expressiveness is excellent. There are actually not too many photographers capable of capturing the body heat of humans in their photos. He has a lot of potential.

Selecting judge: Robert Frank

Regardless of what country he shot the photos, I feel a power, kind of like an explosion. It’s a very good piece of work. I can tell he’s creating it with a free spirit. I could practically hear the sounds and rhythms. It’s almost like watching a movie. The presentation, with the contacts pasted on directly, and the first page with the currency and air tickets pasted, condensing the year of travel, is great. I can sense how it felt to travel. Also, I liked how you could sense the presence of the creator in the inserted photos of the rooms he stayed in.