Press Release2012
The 28th 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, Mitsuhiro Mishima
1-16-1, Higashimachi, Higashikawa, Hokkaido 071-1492 Japan
TEL. +81 166 82 2111 / FAX. +81 166 82 4704

http://photo-town.jp/

The 28th Higashikawa Award Winners<The Overseas Photographer Award>
Arif Aşçi

(Turkey)

For his photographs taken in Istanbul<The Domestic Photographer Award>
Taiji Matsue
For his accomplishments as a photographer<The New Photographer Award>
Lieko Shiga
For her community-oriented activities in Natori, Miyagi prefecture,
beginning in 2009, and her achievements as a photographer<The Special Photographer Award>
Makiko Ui
For the photography exhibition and book, Ainu: Portrait of the Wind
(Shinsensha, 2011), and artistic activities related to the Ainu

<The Hidano Kazuemon Award>
Yoshikazu Minami
For long-term achievement in photography in his hometown of Chichibu

Comments on the Selection of the Higashikawa Photography Awards
Tokihiro Sato, member of the Higashikawa Photography Awards JuryOne year has passed since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. Recovery is
still a long way off for the people and places where the worst damage occurred, and thepsychological damage will also take much time to heal. Those of us who were notseriously affected feel almost embarrassed at our inability to imagine the extent of thesadness and pain of the victims. This has been a year when people thought more
seriously than ever before about their family and friends, their relationships with otherpeople, and their native country of Japan. What do we want for the future of oursociety? What do we need to do? Everyone must resolve these questions for themselves
as they move forward. If we shift our point of view a little, however, as we look at theworld, we can find quite a bit of positive news. In particular, we can be grateful that theHigashikawa Photography Awards will be held again this year, almost as if nothing had
happened.
The judging of this year’s Higashikawa Photography Awards was quite
exciting. A large number of photographers were nominated for awards, and many ofthem have been nominated year after year. The jury began by confirming the criteria for
judging with all members present. Along with talent and ability, we were interested in
relevance to the present, something connected with issues that concern us this year.
Not all of the works have this quality. Only one of the five awards, the Hidano
Kazuemon Award, was determined by a unanimous vote. For all the others, the vote wassplit, and extensive discussion was required to make a final decision. Even so, once thechoices were made, it became clear that this year’s exhibition would feature a fantastic
group of photographers and be extremely interesting.
The Domestic Photographer Award went to Taiji Matsue. Matsue had alreadywon the New Photographer Award in the Higashikawa Photography Awards of 1996
with photographs that directly reflected his background as a student of geography. His
recent work, cell, is reminiscent of the film, Powers of Ten, by Charles and Ray Eames,
which shows the differences in phenomena at different scales. He selects “people who
happened to be photographed” from the billions of particles in the galaxy of images hehas taken on large-format film. These images do not reflect the artist’s ego but are
selected from the universe created by an optical system. The people who have becomesubjects are completely unaware of the camera, and the images seem to have beenblown up from satellite photographs. In a recent solo exhibition, Matsue experimented
further with digital moving images. The viewer watching these pictures on ahigh-resolution video monitor must pay close attention to notice any movement. They
are moving images that appear to be still. His recognition this year was due to his
unique approach, which might be described as a critical stance toward systems ofphotographic and moving images.
Next is the New Photographer Award, always a highly contested prize. This
year, as usual, there were many candidates for the award. After a lot of debate, theaward was given to Lieko Shiga. Shiga received the Kimura Ihei Memorial PhotographyAward in 2008 and in 2009 established a residence in Natori, Miyagi prefecture, where
she had lived while preparing for an exhibition. She became the official photographer ofthe Kitagama district of Natori, and she was there when the great earthquake struck
Miyagi last year. Beginning in June of last year, she gave a series of ten lectures at
Sendai Mediatheque as a prologue to an exhibition there, describing her encounters andconflicts with people in the local community in the process of making her work. Reading
the record of these lectures, we get a good idea of Shiga’s total immersion in these
events and how she continued working with tremendous resilience in spite of problems
and misunderstandings. Even when she was working in the area hit by the earthquake,she maintained her unique style, providing her own vision of the conditions she found.
Shiga is one of the most impressive photographers working today.
The Special Photographer Award is given to a photographer working in
Hokkaido. This year it was awarded to Makiko Ui, who has been taking documentary
photographs of the Ainu people for many years. She has already won a number of prizes
for her book, Ainu, Sometimes Japanese, a photo report on the Ainu living around theTokyo area. Last year, she published Ainu: Portrait of the Wind, a book of photographs
focusing on an Ainu woman living in Nibutani taken over the last twenty years. The
Japanese people are a mixture of peoples who have moved here from many different
regions, and it is now understood that we are not a homogenous race. The Ainu are thenative people who once inhabited the region from northeastern Japan to Sakhalin. They
appear in Japanese history under the name Ezo. Like the Kumaso in the south, they
were given by this name by the Yamato court, and they have a long history of
discrimination. Because these facts are seldom taught or discussed in official discourse
today, this careful photo documentation of a minority in modern Japan is extremelyvaluable. These gentle photographs can make a significant contribution to the buildingof a new society.
Then we have the Hidano Kazuemon Award. This year quite a few
photographers who have already passed away were nominated for this prize, and thisissue came in for considerable discussion. The award is given for distinguishedlong-term achievement, spotlighting photographers connected to a particular region, so
it is not necessarily limited to living photographers. We agreed, however, that it would
be best to give it to a living photographer if possible, and Yoshikazu Minami was chosen
by a unanimous decision of all the judges. Minami is from Chichibu. Although hereceived professional training in photography in Tokyo, he continued to live in his
hometown and painstakingly recorded the customs of this mountainous area during theperiod of rapid economic growth. His work reveals the many changes that have takenplace there over the last 50 years. His photographs are exquisitely crafted and stylish,
and he has won many awards. The image of the worn and weathered Hand of a

Twenty-year-old Girl in the photobook, Chichibu; 30 Years, silently expresses the harshconditions of life in a mountain village in 1963. This “girl” is now 71 years old, but thephotographs do not age. Minami’s photographs have an expressive power that lets them
speak to us as if they had been taken only yesterday.
Finally, there is the Overseas Photographer Award, for which we consideredphotographers from Turkey this year. Based on the extensive research of one of thejudges, Michiko Kasahara, we narrowed down the field of candidates and, after further
discussion, chose Arif Aşçi, a photographer rooted in Istanbul. Istanbul is located on the
Bosporus strait, a pivotal point between East and West. Situated at the boundary
between Europe and Asia, it has a 2000-year history as the capital of the Eastern
Roman Empire and the Osman Turkish Empire. A quiet but dynamic city, it has been
buffeted by events in the history of both Christianity and Islam. Arif Aşçi’s panoramic
photographs skillfully capture light and darkness, as if in reference to the turbulent
history of the city. His photographs usually contain something, such as a cat or a seagull,that suggests the passage of time, but the handling of light and shade in the overalllandscape gives it a timeless, lyrical quality that captivates the viewer. Aşçi’s black andwhite pictures produce a maximum effect as photographs with minimal means. This
basic photographic strength, exerted with only a small amount of visual information,
was a decisive factor in making up the minds of the judges.

The Overseas Photographer Award
Arif Aşçi
Lives in Istanbul, Turkey

Arif Asci is born in Adana, the South of Turkey, in 1958. To be a painter hestudied at Istanbul Fine Arts Academy from 1975 to 1982. After graduation he went to
Italy and stayed 6 months in Rome. In 1984 he started to serve as an instructor inengraving at the same academy. Two years later he resigned and traveled Asian
countries. During those years he built up his career as a photographer. In 90’s hepublished a lot of photo stories and produced TV documentaries on culture. In
1996-1997, he organized a team with ten camels and completed 12,000 km expedition
from China to Turkey. As a result came out a book “The Last Caravan on the Silk Road”.
From 2003-2007, he focused on multilayered images of Istanbul in panoramic form.
Arif Asci’s photos were published and widely exhibited in galleries andmuseums of S.Korea, Germany, Russia, Belgium, France, Italy, USA as well as Turkey.
Asci continues working on various photo series which combine journey into outer andinner worlds.

<Artist Statement>

To start a new photography project, an accidental frame, or newspaper
clipping, a poem, a painting or a simply several sleepless nights and following
depression can be enough. But once I feel that something new, something exciting
appears, after putting a few images side by side I hold firmly the rope of Ariadne. Every
new photo leads me to the next one. To reach to the light at the exit of labyrinth, there
are times that I disappear in the darkness, but looking for the light itself is anadventure. Isn’t it?
To receive prestigious Higashikawa award made me so happy that, Japan,
where I visited two years ago may give me another time opportunity to follow the trail of
my favorite poet, Basho....

The Domestic Photographer Award
Taiji Matsue
Lives in Tokyo

Born in Tokyo in 1963. Graduated in geography from Tokyo University andheld his first solo photography show at Zeit Photo Salon in 1987. Received the New
Photographer Award of the Higashikawa Photography Awards in 1996 and the Kimura
Ihei Memorial Photography Award for Hysteric: Taiji Matsue in 2002. Has participatedin many solo shows and group shows in Japan and overseas.
Developed his trademark style of photographing the surface of the ground
precisely and evenly with front lighting while shooting in Yemen in 1991. Created thegazeteer series, in which images of the land from different locations all over the world
are juxtaposed. In 2001, began showing the CC series, urban scenes shot with the same
methods. Matsue has experimented with new possibilities in the medium ofphotography, creating images with very small and very large scale. cell, for example, iscomposed of very tiny images selected from the gazeteer and CC photographs. He alsobegan making video works that might be described as “moving photographs” in 2010.

The New Photographer Award
Lieko Shiga
Lives in Miyagi

Born in Aichi prefecture in 1980. Graduated from Chelsea College of Art and
Design in London in 2004. Received Mio Photo Award Encouragement Prize in 2005, the33rd Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award for photobooks Lily (Art Beat
Publishers) and Canary (Akaaka-sha) in 2008, and the International Center of
Photography Infinity Award (new photographer award) in 2009.
Stayed in Sendai while preparing work for “Re:search – art collaboration
between Australia and Japan Art Collaboration,” held at Mediateque Sendai in 2006,
and established a studio in the Kitakama district of Natori, Miyagi prefecture. She
worked as a village photographer, blending into the community and listening to the oral
histories of individuals raised in the area. Her photographic works incorporating theseexperiences were made in collaboration with the village people. From June 2011 toMarch 2012, she prepared work for a solo exhibition to be held in November at
Mediateque Sendai and gave a total of ten lectures about her work in Kitakama and her
activities after the earthquake under the title “Thinking Table.”
Shiga’s striking, highly tactile images overwhelm the viewer with theirtremendous strength while posing questions about images and the body.

The Special Photographer Award
Makiko Ui
Lives in Tokyo

Born in Chiba prefecture in 1960. Graduated from Musashino Art University
in 1983. Graduated from Nippon Photography Institute in 1985. Studied underphotographer Kenji Higuchi. Began doing freelance work, mainly for magazines.
Has been visiting Nibutani, Hokkaido since 1992, usually taking her children
with her, to take pictures of an Ainu family who maintain their traditional culture.
These photographs focus on Asiri Rera (meaning “new wind” in Ainu, Japanese name:
Yasuko Yamamichi). Published Ainu, Sometimes Japanese (Shakai Hyoronsha) in 2001,
a collection of photographs of Ainu living in the Tokyo area (where more than 5000 Ainulive), and received the Domestic Photo Report Prize of the 7th Shukan Gendai
Documentary Photography Awards for this photobook in 2002. Published Asir Rera:

Ainu

Spirits(Shinpusha)

andreceived

4th

Sagamihara

New

Photographer

Encouragement Prize in 2010. Published photobook Ainu: Portrait of the Wind
(Shinsensha) and held a solo exhibition of the same photographs at Nikon Salon, Ginza
in 2011.
Usui takes photographs in a natural style with deep empathy for the richspiritual world of the Ainu. Her images include traditional Ainu houses (chise), eventsof everyday life among the Ainu, rituals and dances, and the protest movement against
the Nibutani Dam which threatened to destroy Ainu culture.

The Hidano Kazuemon Award
Yoshikazu Minami
Lives in Chichibu, Saitama

Born in Chichibu, Saitama prefecture in 1935. Graduated from Tokyo Collegeof Photography. Has received many prizes, including the 4th Taiyo Prize in 1967, theSaitama Prefecture Culture Encouragement Prize in 1968, the 28th Photographic
Society of Japan Award in 1978, the 13th Ken Domon Prize in 1994, and the 21st Ina
Nobuo Prize in 1996.
Highly reputed for photographs of farm life, including images of young brides
in farm families and the work done on farms. Minami has made it his life work tophotograph customs and festivals peculiar to the region such as mushi okuri (insect
expulsion), amazake koboshi (spilling sweet sake), the lion dance, and exorcisms; thenatural landscape during the four seasons; and places of religious significance.
These photographs taken over a long period of time in Chichibu give an
understanding to people of later generations of how the people, customs, and landchange have changed time as well as natural landscape views that have not change.

Higashikawa International Photography Festival
Photo Fiesta 2012

Award Winners’ Exhibition
Date: 28 July (Sat.) – 19 August (Sun.), 2012
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:
Arif Aşçi

(The Overseas Photographer Award)

Taiji Matsue (The Domestic Photographer Award)
Lieko Shiga (The New Photographer Award)
Makiko Ui (The Special Photographer Award)
Yoshikazu Minami (The Hidano Kazurmon Award)

Event Schedule:
28 July (Sat.)

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

29 July (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 Photographer Prize, the Special Photographer 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 <Graphic Designer>-----------------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.