It`s been almost 10 months since my first show here in japan, the Spiral SICF show in Omotesando; And alot has happaned in that time. I`d like to thank all those who have helped me along the way and everyone who has taken the time to look at my work either online or at the various shows I`ve participated in since then.
Japan has been an inspiration to me. The landscape of Tokyo has given me just the kind of visual elements I needed to develop my work, in theory and in technique. And I find that now I have a far greater command of my art and a solid view of where it is heading. Exhibiting in Japan has also been a joy. I apolpgise to all the people I have met that have had to put up with my rather basic Japanese... I`m no linguist and being of a solitary nature and having a wife that is fluent in English have spoiled me. Even so, I have learned alot exhibiting here. My second show was Design Festa followed by the Shiodome Art Village. This was a great experience as I got to build some pieces in front of an audience and got a better feeling for how people percieved my work. One of the main problems that always comes up is that people dont intuitively understand that my pieces are made up of individual photographs. Because each shot is reduced in size and because there are so many, people tend to think that it is a collage made of 3 or 4 photos cut up, rather then hundreds of seperate ones. I still have not found a satisfactorary way of getting this idea across instinctively.
After the art village came Geisai, where I had the honor and joy of recieving the shows pentax award for photography. It was an unforgettable experience. Especially getting up on stage to recieve the award in front of the crowd and the cameras. I was almost too nervous to talk, even though I spoke through a translator. Unfortunately I dont know If I messed up any because my wife had to go to a wedding that day and nobody I knew saw me get the award... not even a photo!
After Geisai I found a Gallery that wanted to put on a solo show. Kazuaki Inoue San of the Past Rays Gallery in Ginza Agreed to host a show in March for about 15 works. I was delighted and With that in mind I went some way to fulfilling another dream of mine by going to New York and Chicago to shoot some pieces for the show.
Towards the end of last year I recieved another pleasant surprise. A runners up award in the Signpoosha National Book Publishing competition. I had entered a collection of travel photographs that I had amassed over the last 15 years or so and had been wanting to publish as a book. Now that the work has been completed for the Past Rays show I am going to make some time to look at how I edited the book and review the pictures I chose because I want to persue that project also...
But first things first... my first big show in Japan begins in one week and everyone is extreamly welcome ... details on my homepage and thanks to everyone who helped make it possible.
RCK

