I mean this title pretty literally, I just want to type up some notes. I attended the awards ceremony of the Canon New Cosmos of Photography because my friend Pat Tsai was one of the finalists. The experience was strange, not very enjoyable, and I don’t have very much meaningful to say about it. I don’t really understand what happened, but it may be a useful thing to refer back to later if I ever decide to think about the rat races that young photographers in Japan run. Pat didn’t win, so there’s no way I could pretend to write about this objectively.
The format of the event:
- Boring introduction from Canon employee
- One finalist goes up to the podium and gives a short talk about their work
- Judges ask (or do not ask) questions to the finalist
- Finalist struggles to answer the questions, sits back down
- Repeat until all 5 finalists have presented. This takes about 1.5 hours
- Nerve wracking 40 minute break
- Boring introduction from Canon employee
- Presentation of awards to five finalists
- Announcement of winner
- Winner gives a speech
- Last year’s winner gives a short speech
Profiles of the judges and some description:
- Katsumi Oomori (photographer): Cool guy who spent large parts of the event burying his face in his hands, appearing completely uninterested in anything. A sign of honesty, given the surroundings
- Masafumi Sanai (photographer): Didn’t say very much, but when he spoke, rambled in an esoteric way. His long hair and all-denim bathrobe (!!) gave him the appearance of a dude who just rushed over to the event after missing his alarm. I think I mean this in a good way. I should have taken a picture of the robe, but maybe it will appear on the Canon site later.
- Noi Sawaragi (critic): Embodiment of the “scowling art critic,” asked the harshest questions and spent most of the time with his arms folded. Gave Pat the stinkeye.
- Minoru Shimizu (critic): I think I’ve seen some of his writings in English before, and thought they were impossible to understand, but he was actually very cool. Spoke with lots of energy, and was always pushing towards something positive. Symbolically, wore a white shirt to Sawaragi’s black leather jacket.
- HIROMIX (photographer): Oh, HIROMIX. You can hear the parties in her voice.
Best quotes from judges:
“What can photography do?”
“How will you continue what you’re doing for the next 30, 40, 50 years?”
“What’s something bad? It doesn’t have to be anything related to photography, just, tell me something you think is bad!”
“I’m guessing you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?” (Answer: no, I don’t.) “Yeah, I thought so.” (this was Sanai, bless him)
I don’t really want to get in to this right now, but… Pat was the only one who did not get tripped up by the judges. Hiromix asked him about a dead dog photo he took years ago, and did not include in the work he submitted to the thing.
Hah! This is rather funny. You should go every year.
Well, this kind of thing is doomed from the outset, no? Consider the judges: Sanai is one of the top three or so names in modishly boring Japanese photography. I’ve no idea of what Hiromix has been doing for the past decade, but back in the last century her photos of herself were very pretty. As the nation’s big photo magazines flatulently content themselves with autumnally russet foliage and cherry blossoms, Ōmori daringly puts out a photobook of cherry blossoms (a safe career move; after all, Suzuki Risaku has done it, Friedlander has done it, Parr has done it…).
Expert question: “I’m guessing you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”
An answer I’d have loudly applauded: “Utterly irrelevant to the merit of the photographs now in front of you, and none of your fucking business.”
A long shot: Did any other worthwhile photography make it into the finals?