Profile
岡嶋 和幸
1967年福岡市生まれ。東京写真専門学校（現・東京ビジュアルアーツ）卒業。スタジオアシスタント、写真家助手を経てフリーランスとなる。広告や雑誌などの写真撮影を担当するかたわら、世界を旅して詩情豊かな作品を発表。写真集「ディングル」ほか著書多数。主な写真展に「ディングルの光と風」「潮彩」「学校へ行こう！」などがある。
Kazuyuki Okajima
Born in Fukuoka City in 1967, Kazuyuki Okajima graduated from the Tokyo School of Photography (current name: Tokyo Visual Arts). After working as a studio assistant and photographer’s assistant, he became a freelance photographer. In addition to working as an advertising and magazine photographer, he travels the world shooting images imbued with a strong poetic sentiment. His many publications include the photo collection Dingle. Exhibitions of his work include “The Light and Wind of Dingle,” “Shio-sai” (Tidal Tints), and “Let’s Go to School.”
冈岛 和幸
1967年出生于福冈市，东京摄影专科学校（现在为东京视觉艺术大学）
经历过摄影室助手，摄影师助手后成为自由创作者，在担任广告，杂志等的摄影工作的同时周游世界，发表了一系列富有诗情画意的作品。除了《Dingle》作品集外，还有很多的著作。主要的摄影展有《Dingle的光和风》，《潮彩》，《去学校》等。
Kazuyuki Okajima
Geboren 1967 in Fukuoka, graduierte Kazuyuki Okajima an der Tokyo School of Photography (heutiger Name: Tokyo Visual Arts). Nach einigen Berufsjahren als Studioassistent und Fotograf-Assistent wurde er freiberuflicher Fotograf. Zusätzlich zu seiner Arbeit als Werbe- und Zeitschriftenfotograf bereist er die Welt und macht Aufnahmen mit hoher poetischer Aussagekraft. Zu seinen vielen Veröffentlichungen gehört der Foto-Sammelband Dingle. Seine Werke wurden u.a. auf folgenden Ausstellungen gezeigt: “The Light and Wind of Dingle”, “Shio-sai” (Tidal Tints) und “Let’s Go to School”.
・Exhibitions
2011 「コネマラ」 アップフィールドギャラリー
2010 「くろしお」 アップフィールドギャラリー
2010 「ころりど」 ルミックスサロン
2009-2010 「学校へ行こう！ ミャンマー・インレー湖の子どもたち」 キヤノンギャラリー銀座・札幌・仙台
2009 「潮彩」 ペンタックスフォーラム
2008 「ディングルの光と風」 富士フイルムフォトサロン東京・大阪・福岡・仙台・札幌
2007 「リング・オブ・ディングル」 京セラ・コンタックスサロン東京
2011: Solo exhibition, “Connemara,” UP FIELD GALLERY (Tokyo, Japan)
2010: Solo exhibition, “KURO-SHIO,” UP FIELD GALLERY (Tokyo, Japan)
2010: Solo exhibition, “Colorido,” LUMIX Salon (Osaka, Japan)
2009-2010: Solo exhibition, “Let’s go to school - Children in Inle Lake, Burma,” Canon Gallery (Ginza-Sapporo-Sendai, Japan)
2009: Solo exhibition, “Shio-sai (Tidal Tints),” Pentax Forum (Tokyo, Japan)
2008: Solo exhibition, “The Light and Wind of Dingle,” Fujifilm Photo Salon (Tokyo-Osaka-Fukuoka-Sendai-Sapporo, Japan)
2007: Solo exhibition, “Ring of Dingle,” Kyocera Contax Salon (Tokyo, Japan)
・Publications
2008 「ディングル」ソフトバンク クリエイティブ（ISBN 978-4-7973-4765-4）
2008: “Dingle,” SoftBank Creative
・Awards
2011: Winner of Honorable Mention, “International Photography Awards” (USA)
2010: Winner of Honorable Mention, “International Photography Awards” (USA)
2009: Winner of Honorable Mention, “International Photography Awards” (USA)
2009: Winner of Honorable Mention, “Px3 Photography Competition” (France)
2009: Winner of PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS, “Px3 Photography Competition” (France)
My name is Kazuyuki Okajima.
I was born and raised in Fukuoka City, Japan in 1967 and now reside in town of Onjuku in Chiba Prefecture.
I am a photographer who creates picturesque photograph with the earmarks of rich poetic sentiment.
[Early Days]
I was a boy who loved to paint. Thinking back today, it must have been because of my mother’s affection for painting. I was absorbed in painting ever since I could remember. Today, the city of Fukuoka where I was born and raised is an urban city. However, when I was small, the city was surrounded by nature and was rich in greenery. I used to live in a house that overlooked stretch of rural landscape and the nearby mountain and stream were full of life. There was a stream along the way to elementary school that I attended. I used to fish at the stream with my friends after school and on weekends. It was one of the most memorable places in my childhood days. As I lived in such environment, my paintings were about the familiar country landscape. Whenever I found scenery that I liked, I enjoyed painting on the spot. I loved to observe things over since my childhood and I think I was ascertaining my talent – it felt so great when the result was satisfying. The paintings were awarded several times at local art contests and led me to dream of becoming a painter someday. Although I was clever with my hands, but I think, I had strong powers of description. For being such a child, my mother used to take me to art exhibitions. Most were exhibitions of paintings by impressionist painters and I had a special affection for the works by Monet and Renoir. I remember clearly to this day how my heart elevated over the way the expressions - vibrant colorings and visible brushstrokes – were made. I was surprised at the same time to know that it was not a necessity to be descriptive to draw the objects. I had learnt in my immature mind that there was no restriction against artistic expressions and the expressions were the individuality of the artists.
At the age of ten, I encountered photography at a family trip. During the trip, my father allowed me to use his camera and it had triggered me to get engrossed in photography. Ever since then, I borrowed his camera and continued to enjoy taking pictures. When I grew up and became a middle school student, I had escalated my absorption with photography. During this time, I learned to do the darkroom work. I was still enjoying both drawing pictures and photography in those days. Nevertheless, I had felt that it was easier for me to materialize the expression I had in my mind through paintings than with photography. It was because, with paintings, I did not need to draw what I thought was irrelevant. But, with photography, sometimes unwanted details are captured on pictures. Although cropping has become easier to do with digital image editing software but it is still not an easy task to eliminate irrelevant details from pictures. Nonetheless. I had felt this as a challenge rather than an obstruction to express myself through photography. It was as a pursuit to find my own style of unprecedented expression, just like applying layers of colors on an empty canvas. Soon after I became a senior student in high school, my dream of becoming a painter had changed to becoming a photographer.
After graduating from high school, I left Fukuoka for Tokyo to seriously study photography. I entered Tokyo School of Photography (presently Tokyo Visual Arts) and studied commercial photography for two years. After one year, I felt to learn more than what the class had offered, and made a transfer to evening classes. I felt there was a disparity between the skills that the school had taught and what were actually practiced by the pros, and the lessons at school were outdated. So I worked as a studio assistant for one year in the daytime. I attended various photo sessions for magazines, advertisements and fashions; and I was able to witness shooting and lighting skills of many photographers. Eventually, I had decided to master the portrait photography shooting skills and became an assistant for three years and a half to a photographer, Kenji Moriwaki. I became a freelance photographer at the age of twenty-three as well as working for more than ten years as an assistant to a photographer, Sanae Numata.
[Turning Point]
My life as a photographer started when the bubble economy in Japan was at the end and was heading for deterioration. Up until then, my life was smooth, just like how I had planned. The economy was still healthy in those days and there were many assignments from magazines and advertisements. Conversely, I started to feel afflicted with the disparities between ideal and reality through working one after another. There was not much assignment that I was granted to photograph on my expressions. Majority of my roll was reproduction of the pictures according to the instructions by clients, art directors and editors. It was not the work of a photographer but a cameraman. I had to consent with reluctance to make a living. Nevertheless, I had begun to gradually feel uneasy to take photographs. I was sure that, should I continue, someday I would burn out. It was in those days when I happened to come across a magazine with pictures and writing by Shinya Fujiwara. Up until then, I had believed that a photograph should be shot with correct exposure and in brightness that everybody agrees. However there were extremely under exposed pictures in his work. Those pictures solicited with considerable self-appeal and I was greatly impressed the richness of his expression. He had captured the time with not only photographs but also with words that is based on his independent view point as a traveler. I felt sympathy was inspired by many of his view points. I was greatly fascinated by the idea of going on a trip and take pictures. I stopped taking any photo assignments and started to make my living on part time job to realize my ambition.
There were various business opportunities appearing before me in my late twenties because I had been using PCs at an early stage from the late ‘eighties. The life as a part-time worker that started from a video rental store continued for four years. Within six months I changed my job to a small advertising agency run by an acquaintance. I stayed there for about three years and worked in product development, marketing and sales promotion of a major cosmetics company. The occasion for utilizing the PC had increased as the digitalization was progressing in printed materials and the videos for the presentations and the sales promotions. Afterwards I moved to a different agency to make full use of the knowledge and experience in making a promotion video for a camera maker, and planning and directing for a newly launched amusement facility. And at the age of twenty-nine, I opened a private office in Iidabashil, Tokyo. In those days, I went on travels to take my works but was absent from doing commercial photographs.
I had not suffered from the burst of bubble economy. It was because of the IT bubble that eventually extended into wide spread of digital camera and prosperity of economy. The business of the private office turned out to be favorable and made a good start. I was engaged in producing a wide variety of multimedia contents such as: planning and directing website on internet and soft wares for PC. I also worked as a technical writer on DTP soft wares for designer’s magazine and peripherals for PC magazine. However, contrary to my intention, I became too busy to make time to go out on a trip and take photographers for my work. Nevertheless I became in charge of digital photo-related articles of a camera magazine and the chances of taking sample photos for the amateurs had drastically increased. In most the cases, it was free to take the sample photos under my expressions and I did not experience the stress that I had felt in the past.
It was one of my goals to hold a first solo exhibition before becoming thirty. For that reason, I enjoyed both traveling and creating works in my late twenties. I traveled to Moscow, Russia every year in the winter. I applied for exhibitions at the photo galleries ran by camera and film makers when the works amounted to some degree. However the result always turned out to be unsuccessful. I was able to participate in several group exhibitions but it seemed that I was not yet ready to hold a solo exhibition. I decided to study for ten years because the business was becoming busy with the opening of the private office. Thus the goal of holding a solo exhibition was pushed back to the age of forty. It was a compromised goal for an unyielding kind like myself who does not want to admit the defeat.
I married at the age of twenty-four. I lived in Nerima in Tokyo, but ever since an eldest daughter was born, an admiration to live in the countryside began to arise. It was when I was feeling insecure about my future as a photographer so it could have been an escape from reality. However, triggered by the birth of an eldest son, I began to dream of country life again. I wanted to raise my children in the same natural environment as my childhood. However in those days, it meant that I had to leave all the work in Tokyo should I chose the country life. Nevertheless the situation had changed gradually because of the wide spread of internet and digital camera. If I made full use of the digital camera, it was not impossible to work in the countryside where there were no processing labs. I could send the pictures and the texts to the clients through internet.
I decided to realize the country life at the timing of my eldest daughter’s entrance to elementary school. I chose to move into Onjuku: a town by the Pacific Ocean on the Boso Peninsula of Chiba. It was our dream to live in a resort area of the town that was developed during the bubble economy, surrounded by the sea and the mountains. It also happened to be a neighboring town to my wife’s hometown of Katsuura. There was a famous shore where many people came to swim in summer. A long and white beach, where a conception of the nursery rhyme Tsuki-no Sabaku (The Desert Under a Moon) was born, stretched out for nearly two kilometers. The sea was shallow for a good distance from the shore; the waves were calm with beautiful and clear seawater; the sun rose that from the horizon of the sea made the landscape prismatic under its shimmering light. The popularity of digital camera and internet had grown enough to close the office in Iidabashi. I made a working space in the house in Onjuku and I commute to Tokyo behind a wheel or on a train only when I need to attend a photo session or a meeting.
[Present Days]
My recent assignments are taking photographs for magazines, advertisements, and CD album covers. I also release travel photographs in various media that I took around the world. Aside from inserting pictures, I also write reviews on shooting equipments like camera and lens, articles on procedures and techniques of shooting, imaging and printing, on camera magazine. I have several books published on related articles and is a guest speaker at seminars and work shops. The photo sessions for assignments have increased from those in domestic locations to overseas places. I sometimes travel overseas for shooting assignments and personal works.
While I participated in group exhibitions repeatedly, the thought of holding a solo exhibition that I had put off grew stronger. Therefore I began to create my personal works from the age of thirty-five aiming to hold a solo exhibition in forty. It was done not as side work but I contributed my time just for creating the personal works and went abroad on shooting trips. While still not perfect, I had finally come to separate the shootings for assignments and for my personal works.
My first solo exhibition at the age of forty had inspired me to put more effort in creating the personal works. I had been used to taking photographs during overseas trips and releasing them in Japan. However I am finding the themes and shooting works in Japan for international release. Thanks to the penetration of internet, it has become much easier than before to enter the overseas competitions and the chances are growing. Even if I might be called a late-bloomer, I will actively enter those competitions and strive to find an expression of my own, free from the Japanese convention.
[Theme]
My theme is to express ‘Water.’ I feel a sense of emotions on places or life where water exists. I aim to express a pictorial beauty in photography by utilizing the sentiment of water that work on people’s heart to evoke various emotions and sensations.
[Objects]
My photographic objects are things that convey a sign of the water. There are sceneries with or without the actual water. They could be people, landscapes, and sometimes other things. In other words, everything in this world could become my objects but the encounters are always accidental. The objects such as thing, space and phenomenon share the commonalities: either the figure or texture or details are what I consider to be beautiful. They look impressive or plain, depending on the condition of light. The lights become the agent for conveying the water and lead the work to have a depth of emotions.
[Style]
I prefer artistic expression over descriptiveness. Therefore the light is a significant factor. I utilize the soft and gentle lights in the morning and evening, and not the strong lights in the clear daytime. The pictures tend to look flat and plain in such light condition but the existence of water models the scenery by shading the expressions with sense of emotions.
Whenever I start shooting under a new theme, I imagine about the final finish. Then I make a scheme to layout the equipments such as camera and lens, and step-by-step process to reach the photo prints in the expected image. And I do the simulation according to the scheme and select the best plan.
I enjoy finishing the prints as though I enjoy finishing the prints as though lines and colors drew them. The combination of input and the output, and interim process are the essentials to materialize the expression. They differ by each series and collections.
I am attached to the printing method and print papers to materialize the image inside my heart. Out of the many alternatives such as inkjet photo print papers and developing papers, I select the most suitable means with discretion to fulfill my expression. This is like deciding the paper, paint and paint brush for painting. The technique as it stands becomes my photographic style.
[Future Projects]
It is my intention to grope after a new way of capturing and showing the lights to create works. A quest for realizing the potential of film and digital is essential and one way of approaching the goal. I would like, more than ever, to effectively make proper use of film camera and digital camera according to the theme, object and expression. I will not be constrained by conventional thinking but rather be flexible and make proper use of each systems by their advantages in practice. When I want to be particular about the gradation or the graininess, I will use a film camera; when I want to take pictures under a bad condition like low brightness, I will use a digital camera. In either case, I will be fixated to larger format. It is because I would like to make best use of light in the representation and treasure the airy feeling of photograph. In the case of film, I would like to aggressively shoot with not only medium format but also with large format cameras.
The vehicles for presenting the photographs have diversified in the era of digitalization. However, paper print is the final format for my photographs. I would like, more than ever, to effectively use digital photo printing and developing papers. To digitally print out pictures shot with film camera or to print pictures shot with digital camera on developing papers: I will aim to cross the fence between analog and digital systems, and be flexible in how to make the expressions. While I will strive positively to be on the cutting edge of the digital printing technology, I will challenge doing old-school printing technique such as platinum prints that I had never done in the past.
After I had turned forty in 2004, I make it a goal to hold an exhibition once a year. I was able to achieve the goal so far, and I aim to continue doing. At the same time, I would like to keep on looking for an opportunity to publish a photo book.
[Post Script]
Photography for me is a travel in itself. I take photographs for my work at most abroad. Although I have recently increased taking photographs at nearby places of my house, I would like to continue traveling both domestic and international to create my work; it is not expanding the field of my activities by making a maiden travel but continuing to take pictures by visiting the same country and place to find a new theme.
In parallel with creative activity, I would like to continue take part in the development of the camera industry and the culture of photography. I would like to spread the attraction of photography to more people by the sending out information on magazines and Internet as well as instructing people directly at seminars and workshops. Therefore while I strive to fulfill my creative activity, I will be sensitive to the times and be adaptive to the latest skills and knowledge with forward-looking attitude.