Hideaki Hamada's photostream  

Pentax 67II, 90mm F2.8, KODAK PORTRA 400, developed by FRAME*

Fubiz Awards 2012 Nomination!
‎"Haru and Mina" is nominated for photography award.
www.fubizawards.com/awards/photography/

Pentax 67II, 105mm F2.4, KODAK PORTRA 400, developed by FRAME*

Fubiz Awards 2012 Nomination!
‎"Haru and Mina" is nominated for photography award.
www.fubizawards.com/awards/photography/

Pentax 67, 90mm F2.8, KODAK PORTRA 400, developed by FRAME*

Fubiz Awards 2012 Nomination!
‎"Haru and Mina" is nominated for photography award.
www.fubizawards.com/awards/photography/

Pentax 67, 90mm F2.8, KODAK PORTRA 400, developed by FRAME* (6x6 trimming)
2012 New Year's greeting from Hamada family.

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My children are not only my little darlings but off-shoots of myself. When I look at them, I have a strange feeling - as if I am watching myself re-living my life. When I was a child, my mother occasionally gazed at me this way. Though I had some awareness of it, I pretended not to notice because I think I felt a little embarrassed. But now, I can understand how she felt because I, too, sometimes gaze at my children as my mother did. Nothing illustrates the future for me like my dear children. I wonder if they feel the same thing I felt when my mother gazed lovingly at me. I hope that they do.

Children always act more than I expect. The inspiration for my photography comes from this sort of behavior. Though I direct some of my photographs, in most cases I take pictures of my children just as they are. What I want to show is their "living form". When I take photos of my children, the important thing is to maintain an objective perspective. Not too close, but also not too far away, as if I am watching them from behind. Something close to mere observation, I think. Obeying this rule gives the photos a universal quality. I believe that this universality is necessary to communicate their living forms to someone else.

Although photographers usually tend to want to snap pictures at certain specific moments, children don't smile or cry all the time. Rather, they don't have any special facial expression much of the time. I want to use photography to keep their living forms in that day-to-day world. This way, the highly expressive faces that they occasionally make will look more life-like, and will produce photographs that we will never get tired of looking at.

For me, taking photos is knowing myself. By looking at the world through a view finder, people can see what's happening in front of them more objectively. In addition, we can remember what we were feeling and thinking about in those moments by looking at the photos. In this way it is possible to discover aspects of ourselves which we never knew existed before. And my feeling is that this repetition of thought is what constructs my world.

Translated by Tetsuro Nohara and Peter McCamus

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"Haru & Mina" Hideaki Hamada solo exhibition in Taiwan
2012.1.7 - 2.12 @Sincewell Gallery
2F, No.37, Mingjhe Road, Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City 807

Sincewell Gallery
gallery.sincewell.com.tw/
Facebook page
www.facebook.com/sincewell.gallery

Pentax 67II, 105mm F2.4, KODAK PORTRA 400, developed by FRAME*