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Jury Member for the Nikon Photo Contest (Shanghai, China)
Marine Cabos-Brullé was approached by Nikon back in December 2014, and later became appointed jury member for the category "Still Photography" for the Nikon Photo Contest 2014-2015, which was held in Shanghai (China). Organisers of the 35th iteration of the event assembled a panel of judges, experts in their fields, from both the photography and movie disciplines.
Acting as a judge for the Nikon Photo Contest has been one of the most enriching and rewarding pursuits she has ever undertaken. It enabled her to encounter exemplary photographers and specialists, whilst also allowing her to position herself strongly in the field of photography. This year was particularly interesting as it was the first time that the contest accepted entries from digital devices, therefore affording entrants the opportunity to experiment with the constantly shifting nature of the photographic medium.
The majority of the jury's members decided to give the Grand Prize to the Japanese photographer Katsuhiro Noguchi and his series “Fukushima flower” (福島の花). His photographs might be encapsulated in one brief sentence: when hope meets calamity. Noguchi has been enquiring into this very topic for 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.
More information:
photocontest.nikon.com.cn
