INTERVIEW: YUJI HAMADA

Yuji Hamada’s work has been getting noticed by lots of media, and His first artist book has just been released recently.
His commemorative exhibition “ limart POST “ is on now till 24th August.
1.自己紹介をお願いします
濱田祐史です。現在、東京を拠点に活動してます。
1 Please introduce yourself.
My name is Yuji Hamada, currently based in Tokyo.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
2.いつから写真をはじめましたか。そのキッカケは?
高校生二年生の時に写真を始めました。父親からCanonの一眼レフのカメラをもらったことがきっかけで興味を覚えました。
2 Since when did you start taking photos? And what was the reason?
Started since when I was at second grade High school. That time, my dad gave me a Canon’s SLR, and got hooked on ever since.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
3.自分の作品において、最も大事にしている事は何ですか?
一番はいたずら心です。あとは面白いことに気付く嗅覚と実行する技術。
3 What is your motto when it comes to your works?
Pranks and playfulness are the first things. Then, having ability to sense interesting stuff around me and techniques to execute.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
4.今までの活動の中で最も印象に残っている体験はありますか?
“photograph”を製作中に煙を使うのでよくおまわりさんに怒られたことですかね。
4 What is your highlight of working on your projects so far?
I have used smoke effect quite often when I was working on the project of “photograph”, then I got a warning from the officer.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
5.インスピレーションはどこから得ますか?
写真は鑑賞する人がいてこそメディアとして成立すると考えます。そう考えているせいか、人との出会いや会話の中から生まれることが多いです。
5 Where is your inspirations coming from?
I think having your audience is quite important aspect of photography, without them, nothing worth for the images. So, since I think that way, most of my inspirations coming from the interaction with peoples, and conversations.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
6.例えば、”photograph”シリーズの様にFantasyとRealの境界線を意識した作品が多いように感じますが、そこでの写真の役割とは何でしょう?
物事には対極があると思います。写真は機械を使っているのでより客観的にその境界線をとらえやすいと考えます。
私はそれが写真の持つ魅力だと考えています。
6 You seemed to be seeing the boundary of Fantasy and Realism for your project “ Pulsar “ ( Now, the name is changed to “ photograph “ ), what do you think of the role of photography itself for the project.
I think there’ll alway be opposites for everything. Using a camera is easier way to see things objectively, since a camera itself is a gadget. And that’s what I think their beautifulness is.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
l7.先日、IMA gallery で発表された新作CMYシリーズは、今までの作風とは異なりますが、作品の背景、技法について教えてください。
このシリーズ(C/M/Y)は1枚のデジタルポラロイドをCyan、Magenta、Yellowの3つに水で分解した後、何枚かのイメージを重ねて再構築したシリーズです。
C/M/Yの1枚の中には、私の写真同士を組み合わせるのを基礎に、私の写真とポストカードの複写、私の写真とインターネット画像の複写、またはそれらが混ざり合ったものがあります。
私の目の前にあるものすべて写真になり得るものごとを撮影し、それらの写真の中から違う写真数枚の表面を剥ぎ、偶然的な色とかたちがめぐり合うまで重ね合わせて制作しました。
第1部はイメージのめぐりあい様が水が解け合うようであったことから滝や滝壺や水紋をサブジェクトにして制作し全3部構成で順次発表予定です。
7 The series of your new work C/M/Y which recently was exhibited at IMA gallery, they seem to be different from your previous works. What was the behind the scene and techniques you used?
This is the series which polaroid camera was used, then extracted the image into 3 negatives of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, then reproduced them again.
One of the C/M/K images, there is a mix-layered one which I used my image and postcard image, and also, my image and an image from internet. All these are based on my technique for collage.
I took photos of anything which could be captured as my photograph, and choose some of them and get rid of the surface, then merged them together till they would have the accidental colours and shapes.
This project consists of 3 series, and this is the first series focused on the subject of water falls and their base pond.

おのおのに面白がっていただければ嬉しいです。

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
9.海外で写真賞を受賞されたり、展示を開催されていますが、海外と国内でお客さんの反応や評価等の違いはありますか?
お客さんの反応の違いはあまりわからないです。が、写真家は海外の方がやや多種多様で刺激的な人が多く感じます。
9 You’ve been working and exhibiting your work in overseas. From that experience, do you feel their critiques and responses are different from those in Japan?
I think audiences reaction and their review are not really different anywhere, but I found more variety and interesting photographers in overseas.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International
10.今後の活動について教えて下さい。
近々の展示はIMA concept storeのwallで新作のC/M/
そして、lemon booksから出版される初写真集”photograph”
また9月はスイス、
また同9月にオランダ、
10 Please tell us what you are planning from now on.
My new work the C/M/Y will be exhibited until 10th August at IMA concept store.
And another exhibition will be held at limart POST followed by the release of my first artist book “ photograph “.
And in September, I will have my work exhibited at the visual art festival “ Images “ in Switzerland. I’m glad to be part of the exhibition with other artist that I really respect such as Francis Alys, Leandro Erlich, Erik Kessels and Alex Prager. I’m already excited, and hope it will go well and fun.
And also, in September as well, I will be exhibiting at “ Anima on photography Japan “ in Netherlands.

©Yuji Hamada,courtesy of Photo Gallery International