Nikon Photo Contest 2014-2015, Shanghai: Grand Prize
“Fukushima flower” (福島の花) photographs might be resumed in one brief sentence: when hope meets calamity. The Japanese photographer Katsuhiro Noguchi has been enquiring into this very topic for a few years and aspires to: “make people all over the world smile with the beauty of the flowers of Fukushima.” Yet this triptych offers more than compelling digital compositions, it provides multiple readings of a narrative. On the one hand it tells the horrifying story of a magnitude-9 earthquake followed by a savage tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11th 2011, on the other it gives voice to a man who reached a new way of seeing. Noguchi demonstrates that documenting a tragic event can be done differently by mingling together assumedly different genres; so-called documentary and creative photography have never been so close. Through these pictures shot in sequence over time, the viewer can notice that the flowering behaviour carried on. In the end “Fukushima flower” photographs turn a human and ecological disaster into a colourful sense of hope.
Winner Category A: Theme “HOME”, single photo
Photographer: Pawliczka (Poland)
Winner’s comment:
I am a wedding photographer and this photo is one of my favourite. It simply shows the whole situation during the wedding preparation in the Bride’s parents home. One picture shows all. The tradition. I did this picture in Poland, in Mińsk Mazowiecki.The Groom is putting some money into the Bride’s shoe, which is a polish tradition. The whole family is waiting for the parents blessing. It is just before leaving the house to start the church ceremony .
Winner Category B: Theme “HOME”, photo story
Photographer: Emile Khafizov (Russia)
Winner’s comment:
I shot this photo-story in my parent’s house in Syzran, Russia. It was a great sunny day with a beautiful light. For the last eight years, I have moved in seven different houses, but the place where I spent my childhood remains the place that feels like home.
Winner Category C: Open theme, single photo
Photographer: Fang Tong (Canada)
Winner’s comment:
In a calm and old swimming pool, there is a contrast between a little boy’s joyful expression and this empty, almost enclosed space, I wanted the whole picture to have a little bit of a surreal feeling. The simple lines and blocks of colour, a single boy and a slightly surrealistic space create a mood that is always very interesting . Or, we can call it a dreamscape. The location is in Surrey, BC Canada, in an old outdoor swimming pool, built in the 1970s.
Winner Category D: Open theme, photo story
Photographer: Balu (Hungary)
Winner’s comment:
I’m from a little country, called Hungary. On the world map, we can just hardly point it. I feel myself this small, like my country on the world map. And now, my name is here, my work is here and this feeling is just terrific. My shooting location was my room, in front of a black background. I really love shooting human bodies. Human bodies are just incredible. How beautiful our inside and outside mechanism is. I think photography is the easiest way to show this.
Winner Category: Most Popular
Photographer: Chen Ruiyuan (China)
Winner’s comment:
This work finished first in a poll of 6155 contest participants voting on the works that made it to the second round. The siblings in this excellent portrait may be young and innocent, but their strong gaze and expressions make us feel the power of the life that courses through them. One wonders fondly what is the future that they see before them. This was shot in 2014 in the Daliang Mountains, province of Sichuan.
Grand Prize Video
Artist name: Chris Rudz (Netherlands)
Winner’s comment:
“One” comes from my interest of man’s identity. How it’s created and how it can be mix and deconstructed in separate elements. at the time of creating this film I was reading a book with haiku – ” Japanese poems” and I was impressed by how abstract yet accurate, capturing a moment can be. I decided to create my own poem using a video. the shootis in”One” are mostly taken from my previous works and films. Most of them were shot in the Netherlands and Japan.
