Words are really important, vital to being able to communicate what you want to say or express. As words communicate, so does photography, including the expression of feelings. This project is an initial cross-cultural connection through photography from the UK and Japan. We have involved eight photographers, four from each country. They all have different photo styles. Each photographer was offered five keywords:
Happy, Loneliness, Peace, Playful Mind, Freedom. In 'Beyond Words', what differencies and similarities of approach and expression can you find between the photographers and thier cultural backgrounds?
Photographers
UK
JAPAN
Kathleen Bridget Austin
Ryosuke Suzuki
Matthew Cawrey
Yosuke Mikogami
Krystan-Grace Sharpe-Young
Chiharu Yabuta
Richard Gatward
Haruka Terao
Kathleen Bridget Austin UK -Your photo career? I have been developing my interests in both film and digital photography for several years and enjoy being in the bustle of every day life capturing choice moments all over the UK. The serendipity of street, the candid human life of our everyday surroundings along with the urban wastes of derelict and abandoned buildings gives me my canvas of opportunity. There is a sadness and humour on the street when you least expect it and I attempt to bring a record of this through my art.
-Your photo style? Street Photography
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Happy
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Loneliness
Peace
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Playful Mind 8
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Freedom 10
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Ryosuke Suzuki JAPAN -Your photo career? ELLE japan online「A the 10 Q」 ELLE japan online「KATE STYLE 2014 SS EDITION」 coast 2 coast 2013 SS LOOKBOOK coast 2 coast 2013-2014 AW LOOKBOOK PHOTO ZINE「OTT」vol.1 - 4 dealer：TSUTAYA book store
-Your photo style? I mainly take street photography. In addition, I have also focused on skate boarding and fashion photography. I am really interested in the beauty of a photograph as a perfect graphic, and the lines of composition regardless of their dimension.
Happy 12
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Loneliness 14
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Playful Mind 16
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Freedom
Peace
Matthew Cawrey UK -Your photo career? I've been a keen amateur photographer for as long as I can remember. Starting out with various film cameras before moving on to digital. I've recently focused on wildlife and nature photography as it's both readily available and challenging; but I'm always keen to try out new styles and techniques. I have exhibited in both Leicester and Loughborough Open Exhibitions over the last few years.
-Your photo style? I'm always keen to experiment so the overall style of my photography tends to change; however I try to maintain interesting use of colour and composition, and hopefully capture things in a way that's fresh and interesting. With the wildlife photography I like to try and draw peoples attention to the fascinating natural goings on that I think can be overlooked with the fast-pace of everyday life.
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Happy
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Loneliness 22
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Playful Mind
Freedom 25
Peace 26
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Yosuke Mikogami JAPAN -Your photo career? 2010 : 'Low School' Photo Exhibition
-Your photo style? Street Photography
Happy 28
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Loneliness
Peace 31
Playful Mind 32
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Freedom 34
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Krystan-Grace Sharpe-Young UK -Your photo career? Currently studying BA (Hons) Photography at Nottingham Trent University, planning to become a fine art photographer as a career.
-Your photo style? For me, photographs have to have emotion, a story to tell, I have tried to portray this through my photographs using different symbols. However, it is a passion of mine to know what other people can read from my photographs, so I do not make the meaning so obvious. It's amazing how many different meanings a single photograph can hold. For this project, I took the five words and dug deeper, I found the words that they derived from and what those words meant, and made photographs based upon this. Originality is key, and I always find myself pushing my photographs to a deeper level.
Freedom 36
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Loneliness 38
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Happy
Playful Mind 41
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Peace 43
Chiharu Yabuta JAPAN -Your photo career? 4 years
-Your photo style? I like finding a beauty in daily life.
Happy 44
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Peace
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Playful Mind
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Loneliness
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Freedom
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Richard Gatward UK -Your photo career? I work in International Education at the University of Wolverhampton. I have been a keen amateur photographer for the last 45 years. I have had previous exhibitions sponsored by Charnwood Arts, and a number of published photographs, including a feature on Hong Kong.
-Your photo style? My main photographic interests are street and travel photography. I also have an interest in industrial landscapes and transport. Photographers I admire are Martin Parr, Steve McCurry and Frank Meadow Sutcliffe.
Happy 52
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Loneliness 54
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Playful Mind
Freedom 57
Peace 58
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Haruka Terao JAPAN -Your photo career? 2012 Summer: Started photography on my own, based in Japan and Finland. Taking pictures is the same as making graphic design and Japanese calligraphy for me.
-Your photo style? I want to be honest to my heart. My photographs are intuitions from daily life and notes of dialogue with different elements. They make my eyes clear.
Happy 60
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Loneliness 63
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Playful Mind
Freedom 65
Peace 66
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Thank you to...
Kathleen Bridget Austin
Ryosuke Suzuki
Matthew Cawrey
Yosuke Mikogami
Krystan-Grace Sharpe-Young
Chiharu Yabuta
Richard Gatward
Haruka Terao
Happy
Loneliness
Freedom
Playful mind
Peace
Acknowledgements Contributing:
Photographers
Chiharu Yabuta (Japan) Haruka Terao (Japan) Ryosuke Suzuki (Japan) Yosuke Mikogami (Japan) Kathleen Bridget Austin (UK) Krystan-Grace Sharpe-Young (UK) Matthew Cawrey (UK) Richard Gatward (UK)
Curation & Editorial
Kayuko Inoue
Director
Kevin Ryan
First published in August 2014 Copyright : Charnwood Arts and Individual Authors All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reporoduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, in any forms or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Charnwood Arts.
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Charnwood Arts acknowledges core support from Arts Council England and Charnwood Borough Council.