The man on the sand / Mizuki Okoshi
Aesthetic advisor / Saki Fujino
Photographer, Director / Kazunori Nagashima
©︎2024 alive team. All rights reserved.
A woman designer I had worked with for many years passed away in the summer of 2022 after being ill for about a year. A short time after hearing the news, I picked up my camera and photographed the cityscape at night, drenched in rain, as if in mourning for her. I felt the afterimages of the rain and the rain that soaked the road surface, and I dreamed of her image appearing beyond the light source shining in the darkness, while releasing the shutter under the umbrella. I returned home when I felt the cool rainwater soaking my kicks, and checked the image on the monitor, still feeling the sensation of walking outside. The image looked dull and lonely, but one of the spots looked somehow impressive, so I made some partial corrections in Photoshop to make it more appealing and completed the picture.
However, although I was temporarily satisfied, I was left with a feeling of emptiness. I have sometimes pondered the difference in emotional temperature between partial corrections in photoshop and classic darkroom print work. I am not alone in feeling that the digital darkroom is not a darkroom, but a technical but inorganic process. The picture illuminated by the lens of the enlarger is reflected on the photographic paper, and the process of finishing a single picture while covering it with hands and equipment can never be returned by command+Z.
The process, which can only produce one finished image, is full of tension, and the passion for that one image may create an emotional difference in temperature.
There are no “models” in my photographic works, and in most cases I refer to them as “starring character". However, the man who appears in this work is neither of these.
The man who visited my exhibition titled “neighborism” in early 2024 wore a powerful yet soft air. As a heterosexual, there are not many men I would like to approach and talk to, but I had a feeling that I would discover a philosophy that I had not yet seen in his appearance or in his unique filter. I have never asked him the reason for his stable emotions, his ascetic and positive attitude. Because he seems solitary, a representative of humanity, inclusive enough to be a metaphor for someone else as well as myself, and because I sense an explosive passion in him. Perhaps the reason it took us less than a few minutes of conversation to decide on a photography project with me was that we were not afraid to expose ourselves to each other. And It is very interesting that the two of us do not exactly agree on the significance of me taking the picture and him standing in front of the lens, because the premise of my photography so far has been that I am the one taking the picture and he is the one standing in front of the lens. I am very excited that the two of us don't exactly match, because that premise is a unique point that I have never made in my photography before. He said he wanted to express his “very being” in this project. I agreed. However, I intended to photograph a “living being.
In the eternal flow of time, we are born, enjoy life, and die. At this point in time, our hearts are beating and our thoughts are going through the motions, and we are always in a series of miraculous moments. I decided to photograph his figure, his living existence, wrapped up with time. Even though I use a digital camera, it is as if I were making prints in a darkroom with an enlarger.
Three seconds have passed since the shutter was pressed in. Even after the shutter curtain closes, he is still alive.
He confronts himself, and I photograph with determination.
I believe that the condensation of time, which is different from a photograph that captures a single moment, can express a “living presence” in a dense manner.
In order to further enhance the project, I enlisted the help of a close friend of his, a woman I respect and admire, as an “aesthetic advisor” for this project.
I call this part of the project “art director” because I have absolute faith in her aesthetic abilities, and I feel that I am closer to her character.
As a painter, she once told me, “I paint what comes out of me after a while, when the scene has been absorbed into me "I told her to let me know if she noticed anything.
She then accompanied me on two test shoots, and her support exceeded my expectations.
As a photographer, I photograph “living existence” in a unique method.
He stands in front of the lens and faces his own “existence. And she observes objectively.
A mass of consciousness stands on the ground with gravity.
A flesh and blood body has a clear intention. And it is releasing a kind of wish into the air.
This “A1ive” is to witness, consider deeply, and photograph them.
We are thrilled to tell you that our team have been just announced that International Photography Awards selected our photography project titled "a1ive" as the third place of Special, Other.
