Press Release2014
The 30th Higashikawa Awards
The Town of Photography
Information

Higashikawa International Photography Festival Office
Mayor : MATSUOKA Ichiro

HIGASHIKAWA, KAMIKAWA-GUN, HOKKAIDO**********************************************************************<Address>

HIGASHIKAWA PUBLIC

OFFICE

Organizers: Shuuji Takebe, Akihito Kubota
1-16-1, Higashimachi, Higashikawa, Hokkaido 071-1492 Japan
TEL. +81 166 82 2111 / FAX. +81 166 82 4704

http://photo-town.jp/

The 30th Higashikawa Award Winners◆The Overseas Photographer Award: Jorma Puranen (Finland)
For photographic achievements, including “Icy Prospects“◆The Domestic Photographer Award:

NOGUCHI Rika

For the exhibition “NOGUCHI Rika: Light Reaching the Future” (Izu
Photo Museum, 2011-12) and her accomplishments as a photographer◆The New Photographer Award:

Gentaro Ishizuka

For the photobook, PIPELINE ICELAND/ALASKA (euphoria
FACTORY/ Kodansha, 2013)◆The Special Photographer Award: Koji Sakai
For achievements in photographing Hokkaido, including the “Sight
Seeing” series.

◆The Hidano Kazuemon Award:

Tazuko Masuyama

For a series of photographs of Tokuyama Village, which was
destined to disappear under the waters of a reservoir.

Comments on the Selection of the Higashikawa Photography Awards
Tokihiro Sato, member of the Higashikawa Photography Awards Jury

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Higashikawa PhotographyAwards. Many events and incidents have occurred during this thirty years – too many
to recount here – and the conditions of society have changed greatly. The Higashikawa
Photography Awards were presented for the first time in 1985. There were no galleries
in Higashikawa at the time, and I have heard that the photographs were initiallyexhibited in existing facilities such as the Agricultural Improvement Center. The event
has continued under three different mayors, being reevaluated from time to time andimproved with new ideas. “Photography Koshien,” an event for high-school students,
was added twenty years ago. During the last few years, more and more municipalities
throughout Japan have made an attempt to improve their communities throughcultural activities. Higashikawa was one of the first to pursue this goal by promoting
the art of photography, and the Higashikawa Photography Awards is a successful eventthat continues to flourish.

The judging of this year’s entries took place in the final week of February. The
awards are determined through discussion by a jury of eight members, and this style ofjudging, which is influenced by differences in the individual character and opinions of
the judges, has become a distinctive feature of the Higashikawa Photography Awards.
All of the final candidates for awards are extremely talented and accomplishedphotographers, so it is very difficult to show strictly logical reasons for choosing one
photographer rather than another. It is necessary to make decisions by a majority vote,but because there are eight judges, an even number, it is not uncommon for the vote tobe evenly divided. And the composition of the opposing groups of jury members is
usually different on each occasion. If we look at this year’s winners, who were selectedin this highly competitive process, we find that the final lineup is highly deserving of
this honor and we can take pride in the result. The quality of the photographers whowill receive this year’s awards is commensurate with the celebration of this thirtiethanniversary.

The first award I would like to consider is the Domestic Photographer Award,
which went to NOGUCHI Rika. Noguchi has been nominated in previous years, but thejudges finally came together to support her continuing achievement. Noguchi’s work
reflects a unique view of the world that is gentle and expansive, and she composes her
photographs by framing the subject matter from a slightly detached point of view. Her
work has appeared in individual shows as well as group shows such as “I Dreamt of
Flying” at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, “The Light” at the National Art
Center, and “Light Reaching the Future” at the Izu Photo Museum. All her works
suggest some sort of subtle narrative. The elements that make up the tranquil space ofher photographs – birds, domesticated animals, insects, people, sunlight, a rocket
blasting off, and the light source of a projector – are all treated as being of equal value.
She has participated in previous exhibitions in Higashikawa, and I am delighted to see
her receiving the Domestic Photographer Award this year.

Next is the New Photographer Award. This award is always the mostcontested because it depends so much on the subjective viewpoint of the selectors. This
year, it was presented to Gentaro Ishizuka in recognition of his photobook PIPELINEICELAND/ALASKA. He was previously nominated in 2007 when his first views ofpipelines were published. The 4 x 5 format of the previous book was replaced by an 8 x
10 format in the current work. The four-inch difference may not be important, but there
is a big difference in the way these photographs are handled. The subject is the naturalenvironments of Iceland and Alaska and the long pipelines passing through them.
These pipelines represent the need of human beings to maintain a supply of energy
wherever they live, and the images reveal a simple relationship between human beingsand nature. Ishizuka has traveled the world with his large-format camera, and thesense of scale and energy he has achieved make him fully deserving of the New
Photographer Award.

The Special Photographer Award was given to Koji Sakai. Sakai is anotherphotographer who has been nominated a number of times over the years. For a longtime he has been known for the landscape series, Sight Seeing, in which he explores
primal images of Hokkaido. The series has been continued in recent years under adifferent title, Gukei. The judges agreed on rewarding his efforts this year. Sakai wasborn in Hokkaido and has continued taking photographs of Hokkaido for many years.

The titles of his photographs are composed of numbers that indicate the latitude andlongitude of the subject as well as the date. The photographer is interested in theparticular geographical place that has been photographed. His approach to photography,
capturing light in relation to geography, is especially suited to the Special PhotographerAward, which is given to photographers and photographs related to Hokkaido.

Then there is the Hidano Kazuemon Award, which was presented this year to
Tazuko Masuyama, a photographer who passed away eight years ago. Masuyama wasborn in Tokuyama Village, Gifu prefecture. She was engaged in farming and managing
an inn throughout her life but at the same time used a compact camera to document thechanges in her home village brought about by the building of the Tokuyama Dam. Her
photographic record covers all phases of the project from the early stages of planning
through construction. In all, she filled some 600 photo albums and left over hundred
thousand negatives. When we look at the photographs she produced and their sheer
volume, we gain a new sense of the value of the existence of photographs. This mass ofphotographs represents the accumulated everyday actions of a single woman. Theysuggest an answer to the question of the fundamental nature of photography. These
collected photographs of everyday life have great significance and strength. It was
decided that Masuyama’s achievement was deserving of an award identified with thename of Hidano Kazuemon.

The final award is the Overseas Photographer Award, presented to Jorma
Puranen of Finland. He belongs to a group of photographers known as the Helsinki
School, which has begun to be introduced in Japan in recent years. Puranen has taught
at University of Art and Design Helsinki (now Aalto University School of Art and
Design) and contributed to the education of younger photographers. He has createdoverlapping images of landscape, native people, and language as well as photographsthat treat reflections on the surfaces of paintings and photographs. Portraits of people
have connotations of history and authority, and language shows cultural differences.
Puranen presents photographic effects with a critical viewpoint, making them
metaphors for the history and memory contained in the paintings and photographs heappropriates. We are pleased to be able to offer the Overseas Photographer Award to a
photographer who produces photographs filled with such great beauty and profoundmeaning.

The Overseas Photographer Award
Jorma Puranen
Lives in Helsinki, Finland

One of Finland’s most important photographers, Jorma Puranen began his
photographic career in the early 1970’s. His works has been diverse, from poetic
ethnography to experimentation with painterly reflections of light. His interest in
historical painting has led him to conceptual projects with portraiture and landscape.
Puranen has exhibited widely and his work is being held in various
international museum collections. His most recent exhibitions include Seduced by Art;

Photography Part and Present, National Gallery London, 2012, Shadows, Reflections
and All That Sort of Thing, Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki, 2011, EMMA Museumof Modern Art, Espoo, 2010 and Palais des Beaux-Art, Lille, 2010.
Puranen lives and works in Helsinki, where his teaching has inspired ageneration of young practitioners, now called the Helsinki School.

<Artist statement>
My work is about photography’s ability to give expression to various
inter-related layers of history and memory, geographical imagination and culturaldifference. Photographs exist simultaneously as material objects, as complexly codedthematic representations of people and places, and as triggers for speculation, fantasy,
reverie. In exploring themes of history and cultural difference I am not only making useof this complexity but also critiques the role of visual representation in the constructionof history.
I am often asking myself “what any other medium [than photography] deals
so expressively with the play of light and shadow?” For me, the photography’s capacity
to register shadows and reflections is a unique quality. In my work the use of reflections
becomes a metaphor, a way to grasp the relationships of past and present, duration oftime and recollection over the years.
In fact, it could be said that reflection—or reflected light—is the very subject
matter of the photographs in my work, even as these images also address notions ofhistory, memory, and imagination.

The Domestic Photographer AwardNOGUCHI Rika
Lives in Berlin, Germany

Born in 1971 in Omiya (now Saitama City), Saitama Prefecture. Graduatedfrom the Department of Photography, College of Art, Nihon University in 1994. Her
photographs were marked by a high degree of finish and unique sense of distance.
Received early recognition for such works as Record of Creation, which earned The
Grand Prize of the 5th 3.3 m2 Exhibition (1995), To Dive, which received The Grand
Prize of New Cosmos of Photography (1996), and A Prime, which was shown in the“Grand Prize Winner’s Exhibition” the next year (1997).
Searched with great physical and mental energy for places where her
imagination could connect with interesting subjects, exploring the bottom of the ocean,many locations around the planet, and even outer space and revealing a fantastic,
unknown world in the landscapes she photographed. In recent work, has experimented
with pinhole cameras and silkscreen prints, creating new forms of photographic
expression that cross conventional boundaries.
In 1997, presented a solo show and participated in a group exhibition in
Higashikawa. Stayed in New York on a personal fellowship from the Asian Cultural
Council in 1998. Guest artist at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunstverein in
Amsterdam in 1999-2000. Received the 52nd Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement
Prize for New Artists in 2002. Stayed in Germany and East Africa on a fellowship fromthe Pola Art Foundation in 2005. At present, lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Noguchi has participated in many exhibitions inside and outside Japan.
Major solo exhibitions in Japan include “A feeling of something happening,” Marugame
Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, 2001; “I Dreamt of Flying,”
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2004; and “NOGUCHI Rika: Light
Reaching the Future,” Izu Photo Museum, 2011-12.

The New Photographer Award
Gentaro Ishizuka
Lives in Tokyo

Born in Tokyo in 1977. Began taking photographs around age 19 and traveled
to more than 70 world countries, including Sri Lanka, Germany, and Alaska. Won the
Epson Color Imaging Contest Prize in 1999 for World Wide Wonderful, produced while
backpacking in Africa and Asia. In 2002, received the Grand Prize in the general sectionof the Visual Art Awards and the Young Photographer Award of the Japan
Photographers Association for worldwidewarp, composed of pairs of verticallyjuxtaposed photographs taken at slightly different times and completed during two
trips around the world, moving from east to west.
In 2003, became interested in a long pipeline passing through the endlessnatural environment that he experienced on a trip to Alaska. This trans-Alaskan
pipeline, over 1280 km long, was planned after the oil shock to transport oil from thelarge oil fields in the far north of North America to ports in the south. In 2007, Ishizuka
published PIPELINE ALASKA (Petit Grand Publishing, Inc.), containing the photos
that he took while traveling the entire length of the pipeline from south to north. In thespring of 2012, while continuing to take pictures in Alaska, he was offered an SIM
residency in Iceland, where he took photographs of a pipeline that supplies geothermalenergy to the cities with an 8 x 10 large-format camera. In 2013, he published
PIPELINEICELAND/ALASKA(euphoria

FACTORY/Kodansha),featuring

photographs of both Alaska and Iceland.
Currently photographing landscapes with a unique point of view in locations
throughout the world. Subjects include glaciers, pipelines, and gold rushes. In 2011,
given an Overseas Study Grant for Young Artists by the Japanese Cultural Agency. In
2012, received an Overseas Study Grant for Young Artists from the Pola Art
Foundation.

The Special Photographer Award
Koji Sakai
Lives in Sapporo, Hokkaido

Born in Yoichi-cho, Hokkaido in 1960. Graduated from the Photographic
Technology Section of the Tokyo Polytechnic University Junior College. Won the First
Fox-Talbot Prize sponsored by Tokyo Polytechnic University. Vanishing Point of

Summer acquired by the Shadai Gallery. Worked for a photo studio in Sapporo and in
1992 established Graytone Photographs Inc. Has been participating in solo and groupexhibitions since 1984. Became a member of the Network of Photographers Promoting
Hokkaido, a non-profit organization, and served as a part-time instructor in the art
department of Sapporo Otani University.
In Sight Seeing, a series begun in 1994, captured ordinary landscapes
different from the sorts of scenes that we typically associate with Hokkaido. The titles of
the works are composed of 21 numbers, which indicate the time and place (latitude andlongitude) of the photograph. The silent spaces, archetypical landscapes, which reveal
themselves in his photographs are captured in varied kinds of light and places in
Hokkaido. Showed work from the same series in a solo exhibition at CAI02 Gallery in
Sapporo in 2009.
In a parallel series, Something Standing There, photographed ordinary
buildings such as wood-frame residences, barns, silos, and small community meetinghalls built in the Showa era. In addition to documenting a particular historical period,
these seemingly forgotten images have a quiet but intense sense of presence. In

Hokkaido Journey, a series of color snapshots taken in various places in Hokkaido, hecontinues to examine ways of revealing the landscape of Hokkaido.

The Hidano Kazuemon Award
Tazuko Masuyama
Born in Tokuyama Village(1917-2006)
Photo by Hiroshi Kakiuchi

Born in Tonyu, Tokuyama Village, Gifu Prefecture in 1917. After losing her
husband in World War II, she continued living in Tokuyama Village, doing farm workand operating a small inn. In 1957, a plan was proposed to build a dam in Tokuyama.
Motivated by a desire to preserve a record of the village, began to record the sounds ofvillage events and everyday life with a tape recorder. In 1977, as the dam project moved
forward, took her first photographs at a village athletic day. She invested inphotographic equipment with money from her pension and went on to take many
pictures with a Pikkari Konica, becoming known as the “photographer grandma.”
In 1983, cooperated in the making of a film based on Tokuyama Village,

Furusato (Hometown), directed by Kamiyama Seijiro, and appeared in the last scene.
Published first book of photographs, Kokyo – watakushi no Tokuyamamura shashinnikki (Hometown – my photographic diary of Tokuyama village) through Jakometei
Shuppan in 1983. In 1985, forced to leave Tokuyama Village and moved to Gifu City.
Continued visiting the village after it was abandoned in 1987 and continued
photographing the people, nature, buildings, festivals, and customs of the village until
her death in March 2006 at age 88. Eventually produced some 100,000 negatives and
600 photo albums. Test filling of the reservoir began in September of that year and theremains of Tokuyama Village were covered by water. Tokuyama Dam was completed in
2008, a half century after the planning began, and Masuyama’s photographs became
precious documents of the former condition of the village.
Received an Avon Achievement Award in 1984. Published Arigato,

Tokuyama-mura (Thank you, Tokuyama village) through Kage Shobo, in 1987 andMasuyama Tazuko: Tokuyama-mura shashin zen kiroku (Tazuko Masuyama: The Photo
Documentation of Tokuyama village) through Kage Shobo in 1997. After Masuyama’s
death, exhibitions of her photographs were presented throughout Japan. A recent
exhibition was “Tazuko Masuyama: Until Everything Becomes a Photograph” at Izu
Photo Museum in 2013-14.

Higashikawa International Photography Festival
Photo Fiesta 2014

Award Winners’ Exhibition
Date: 9 August (Sat.) – 3 September (Wed.), 2014
Venue: Higashikawa Bunka Gallery
Time: 10:00 - 17:30
Admission: ¥200 ( ¥100 for residents )Organize: The Town of Photography: Higashikawa
Address: 1-19-8 Higashi-machi, Higashikawa-cho, Kamikawa-gun, 071-1423 Hokkaido
Tel: (+81)-(0)166-82-4700 Fax: (+81)-(0)166-82-4704

Artists:
Jorma Puranen(The Overseas Photographer Award)

NOGUCHI Rika

(The Domestic Photographer Award)

Gentaro Ishizuka(The New Photographer Award)

Koji Sakai(The Special Photographer Award)

Tazuko Masuyama(The Hidano Kazurmon Award)

Event Schedule:
9 August (Sat.)

14:00-14:45 Award Ceremony
15:30-17:00 Opening Reception

10 August (Sun.)

13:00-17:30 Panel Discussion
Panelists: award winners, judges and guests

Higashikawa Awards[Purpose]With the idea of contributing to and fostering photographic culture as well as raising
the cultural consciousness of Higashikawa residents, starting this year, 1985, we will
annually be awarding prizes accompanied by monetary gifts to the photographer for his/ her works.

[Awards]
The Overseas Photographer Award*1,000,000 yen to a overseas photographer
The Domestic Photographer Award*1,000,000 yen to a Japanese photographer
The New Photographer Award*500,000 yen to a Japanese photographer
The Special Photographer Award*500,000 yen to a photographer from Hokkaido
The Hidano Kazuemon Award*500,000 yen to a photographer who contributed to society through photography[Conditions]
The Overseas Photographer Award is presented to a photographer in a specificcountry or region chosen each year. He / She must be either living or born in thatcountry or region.
The Domestic and the New Photographer Awards are presented to photographers
whose work has been taken within the past three years that has significance either inthe history of photography or as some unique expression of the art of photography.
The Special Photographer Award is presented to a photographer living or born in
Hokkaido or whose theme and / or object concerns this island.
The Hidano Kazuemon Award is presented to a photographer in acknowledgement of
his longtime contributions in taking photographs of local people, nature and culture.
(The prize is open to both professional and amateur photographers.)
Of all the prizes, no specific restrictions are applied concerning the year it was taken
for the Overseas Prize, the Special Prize and the Hidano Kazuemon Prize.

[Selection]
The works selected by nominators charged by the executive committee are judged by the
Jury Committee of the Higashikawa Award. The awards ceremony is held each year
during the period of the Photo Fiesta in Higashikawa Town and is accompanied bycommemorative symposiums and other events.

[Other Stipulations]
The monetary gift presented with the Higashikawa Awards is meant to purchase theoriginal prints of the awarded photographs. Each awardee is requested to voluntarily
submit original print(s) of his / her choice from among the awarded works to the residentsof Higashikawa town.
The residents of the town shall be responsible for storing the photographs with care andfor exhibiting them to visitors to Higashikawa, the Town of Photography.
These awarded photographs are exhibited at the Higashikawa Photography Museum inorder to contribute to promoting a friendship and cultural development of the Town ofHigashikawa.
We may present other awards to the photographs of outstanding works in order tocontribute to photographic culture as well as to development of the Higashikawa Awards.
For this reason, awards from other committees and sponsors are negotiable.

The Jury Committee of the 25th Higashikawa Awards
Katsumi ASABA <Art Director>-----------------24th –Michiko KASAHARA <Photo Critic>------------------23rd –Aki KUSUMOTO <Critic, Curator>---------------------25th –Tokihiro SATO <Photographer>-------------------------14th–
Kazuyoshi NOMACHI <Photographer> --------------23rd –Keiichiro HIRANO <Novelist>---------------------------24th –Yuri MITSUDA<Art Critic>------------------------------27th –Hiroshi YAMAZAKI <Photographer>------------------25th –The Town of Photography: Higashikawa
Higashikawa Town is located in central Hokkaido, northernmost of Japan, and is apart of Japan's largest national park "Daisetsuzan National Park" with Higashikawa's
eastern part forming a large-scale forest. Blessed with natural beauty, lots of places in
Higashikawa have been the subjects of many photographs.
Higashikawa, firstly cultivated by a group of settlers in 1895, has a shorter history
compared to that of photography invented in 1839. Higashikawa declared the “Town of
Photography” in 1985 aiming to create a town of “being a good subject to be
photographed” co-existing with beautiful nature inhabited by many species of animals
and plants.
Higashikawa established the Higashikawa Awards in the same year and started theannual summer festival of photography with the idea of contributing to and fostering
photographic culture as well as raising the cultural consciousness of Higashikawa
residents. With a history of more than a quarter of a century, it has been the nation’s
prestigious photography awards and the longest-running photography festival.
Higashikawa awards can also be noted in that it has rewarded overseas outstanding
photographers such as Joel Sternfeld, Lewis Baltz and Jan Saudek as well as domestic
photographers and introduced them to Japan. Through this, we meet people fromabroad and exchange with them. By doing so, we believe we can entrust prayer forpeace and our dreams to the future generation.