Thread

• Prize
  Bronze in Analog / Film/Fine Art
• Photographer
  Mari Inagaki
• Photo Date
  2024-2025

When I was very young, I asked my grandmother, “If you could make any wish come true, what would it be?” She smiled and said, “Just once I'd like to fall deeply in love.” Born in 1920, like many Japanese women of her time, she married a man chosen by her parents with no prior interaction and devoted her entire life to farming and housework while raising five daughters. Acknowledging her existence as a woman, these photographs reveal her hidden beauty and the connection to what she kept locked deep within. In gratitude for the thread she has bound that has guided me to where I am today.

After gaining 20 years of practical experience as a photographer, I once again believe that photography has the power to influence and impact the world around us. In our society, the strong survive and the weak are discriminated against and eliminated but a wide variety of people coexist in this world and we should aim to create a society where everyone can live comfortably. I want to use the power of photography, which has an instantaneous visual impact, to create a society where people who are considered minorities can live comfortably.