|
Ikuko Tsuchiya
has won the Observer Hodge Photographic Award for 2000 and is preparing
a photo spread for the newspaper's Observer Life magazine.
we have obtained
several of her photographs that show her ability to catch the essence
of the human spirit in strong black and white portraits.
 |
| Ikuko Tsuchiya,
winner of the Observer Hodge award. |
The 25-year-old
from Japan has studied at Nottingham Trent for three years in
the photography department and before that attended he Tokyo
Institute for Polytechnics.
Her supervisor
at Nottingham Trent, Dr Philip Stokes, says: 'Ikuko's empathy
with other people, her outstanding technical ability and above
all her intelligence has brought her to the present milestone.'
Her biggest
project so far has been a photographic documentation of life
in Botton village, Yorkshire, a community for people with learning
disabilities, based on the Christian principles of Austrian
philosopher Rudolph Steiner.
| "My
life in whole Nottingham is spent in the dark. Working in
the dark room for the whole day for my photography course
... going for a drink in the pub and then back home in the
dark! |
The people
at Botton live and work in an agricultural environment, and
Ikuko uses her documentary style to show how they work happily
and productively together.
She first
visited the community in 1997 when she travelled there to see
her sister, who was spending the year as a volunteer in the
village.
Dr Stokes
says Ikuko's work in Botton resulted in a deep and intense contact
with the people there, who run farms, market gardens, food centres
and a bakery.
The Observer
Hodge Award was established in 1986 in memory of photojournalist
David Hodge who died at age 29 in the course of his work. The
prize aims to give young photographers the chance to bring their
work to a wider audience.
She has
also won the Fox Talbot Award in Japan and the Jack Jackson
award in England, and has exhibited her work at the NEC in Birmingham
and galleries in London, Nottingham and Tokyo.
Here are
several photographs from Botton Village that Ikuko has supplied
to Nottingham:
 |
 |
|
Farmworkers
|
Other University
high flyers include designer
Billie Tuttle, science fantasy author
Graham Joyce, and Chinese table tennis star Deng
Yaping.
|
