Rinko Kawauchi's Days vol.13 "About Asaba" (IMA ONLINE) --Yahoo! News

Rinko Kawauchi's Days vol.13 "Mr. Asaba"

Rinko Kawauchi, a photographer who will deliver a series once a month, spells out her photographs and sentences, and the photographs. A diary-like photo essay that describes daily awareness of child-rearing and episodes related to photo production.See more images in this article

About Asaba

She first became a photographer when she entered a Recruit-sponsored competition in 1997. She submitted her portfolio in the first round and held a group exhibition with a few selected people in the second round. The flow was to announce the presentation in front of the judges at the venue and decide the grand prix. At that time, mobile phones were not so popular, so I used to go home to my apartment and check my answering machine, but one day after I submitted my portfolio, I got an answering machine at home. My name is Katsumi Asaba. I'll call you again. " I wondered if one of her friends told the name of a mischievous and famous art director, she wondered and pardoned that day. However, the answering machine with the same content was on the next day and the day after next, so I thought that this might be the real thing, so I looked up the phone number of Katsumi Asaba's design room in the phone book of the person in the advertising industry attached to the magazine's appendix and called. saw. She asked if she might have called me, and she said, "I saw the work file, it's a good photo. Let's work together," and she was surprised again. She knew that Asaba was one of the judges in the competition, but she hadn't been informed that she had passed the first round at that time. Immediately after that, the news arrived and I decided to go to Mr. Asaba's office for a meeting. The filming work at her request and her career as a writer started at the same time. Her first job was a magazine advertisement for a major pharmaceutical company. It is said that the image of a long-selling product as a nourishing tonic will be advertised in a series from a new angle. He intended to cover festivals that feel "powerful" in various regions and capture the decisive moments in one piece. When I had the first meeting with the person in charge of the advertising agency, Mr. Asaba introduced me, so I'd like to ask, is that okay? She was worried. Even though I've worked in a studio, I'm worried about the work of a major company that I can't retake because I have little experience, of course, I'm also worried. She thought inwardly, but I remember just saying, "I'll do my best without saying it." Then, on the day of shooting, I decided to aim for a scene where a large number of men carrying portable shrines collide with each other. The climax will be reached late at night, but since it is the most exciting, I decided to rent the roof of my house and shoot from above. The sensitivity was not enough to shoot with the film, and the amount of light was not enough even if it was sensitized during development, so I prepared a large strobe and HMI light. Two friends who worked in the same studio as assistants came along, and I managed to finish the shooting while being watched by Mr. Asaba, the people of the advertising production company, and the client. Of course I couldn't make a mistake when shooting under difficult conditions, so I was nervous, but after shooting, the excitement of the festival helped me to feel comfortable and fulfilling. After that, I received work from Mr. Asaba without interruption. Asaba always wore Issey Miyake's beautifully colored clothes at the shooting site, and she quietly watched over me. And she always complimented the finished product. When choosing only one, don't hesitate to choose it quickly, and this is the only one, let's go with this! She was shown the leadership that was driven while always tightening the atmosphere of the production site. Looking back now, it was a valuable experience for me to study various things. And she was able to live freelance if she noticed. However, there are few jobs other than Mr. Asaba, and thanks to the grand prix at the competition, I was able to hold a solo exhibition once, but after that she did not know how to develop her writer's activities, so she was impatient. Things are gradually coming out. It was a day of trial and error, thinking that I should call myself a photographer, and first of all I had to make something that would be a masterpiece, but on the other hand, at the work site of Mr. Asaba. He introduced me to many people and said, "I'm Rinko, a genius photographer, I'm taking amazing pictures." Thankfully she wasn't confident, so her embarrassment came first and she began to feel pressured. She always encouraged her, "Rinko can do both her work and her work, so I'll do my best," but she doesn't think so. It became. She was young. When she did, she got a big job as a regular. At first she wanted to do her best, but as the meetings went on, her concept changed steadily, and eventually location shooting changed to studio shooting. It was common and unavoidable, but she seemed to snap what she had accumulated in herself at that time. She couldn't sleep, she went to Asaba's office the next day, she was really sorry, she wasn't confident that she could shoot well, so I'd like to ask someone else, she cries. While she bowed her head. She did something like giving back her grace, and she didn't know what to do, but she could only do that then. Mr. Asaba didn't blame me, but of course the number of requests for photography gradually decreased. She then lost her income, but she felt like she was back in the vacant lot and she decided to make a piece. She felt that it was a good pressure to think that one day she could only have Asaba see her work again. When she won the Kimura Ihei Award after a while, she gave a speech to Mr. Asaba as her benefactor representative at the award ceremony, and she had the opportunity to meet about once every few years. But she hasn't had that opportunity for some time. When I was thinking of meeting again, my friends who became friends with Mr. Asaba, who also helped me, set the date and time to go to the office together because I want to meet myself. So, I went to see him in the afternoon on Sunday as a greeting for the new year. When I stood in front of the Asaba Design Room for the first time in a long time in a building with golden walls by an Italian architect, the memory of more than 20 years ago, which I used to go every week, revived vividly. When I was a little nervous and went inside, I was surrounded by the same air, and I felt like I was back at that time. Asaba and her wife welcomed me with a smile, and while I was asked to see my recent publications, the time passed immediately with their memories and recent reports. During that time, I felt like I was wrapped in something like Asaba's paternity, and it was as big as it used to be. As she was just freelance, she realized she was protected by this big invisible thing and felt like she was back in the nest. We said goodbye, saying that we should have dinner together next time, and looked at the cityscape of Omotesando, which was quite different from 20 years ago. She went home and had dinner and reported to her husband what happened today. It's been a while, but when she said she was relieved to be thankful for that time, she melted a part of herself, the young man who tended to be in her twenties. I felt like I was going. She couldn't stop crying, thinking that she was still herself at that time. Her daughter, who was playing after eating earlier, noticed it and what happened? Stroked her head. The feel of her little hands seemed to melt the part more and more.