Master’s student Natsuki Tsunoda from the Shinya Fujii Lab has earned the gold prize in the 64th Fujifilm Photo Contest’s Student Category.
The contest is one of Japan's most prestigious photography competitions, organized by Fujifilm with a history of more than half a century. Since its launch in 1950, it has been run as a corporate philanthropy initiative to widely share the joy and emotional resonance of photography. Each year, it attracts a wide range of entries, from experienced photography enthusiasts to young photographers who express their unique sensibilities and imagination in their craft.
A total of 22,827 entries were submitted across five categories for this 64th edition. Among the many submissions in the student category, Tsunoda’s work received the gold prize for its expressive power in capturing a fleeting moment of a dancing figure, its striking composition—which makes bold use of negative space where the figure seems to go off the edge of the frame and vanish—and the unique aesthetic created by the distinct grain and the subtle ambiguity of colors characteristic of film photography.
“I feel deeply privileged to receive the gold prize from among so many wonderful works,” noted Tsunoda. “In this piece, I intentionally incorporated the ‘ghosting’ effect, visual artifacts seen in photos before the establishment of the gelatin silver process in 1880, as an expressive element. To bring out the inherent characteristics of the film, I made no post-processing adjustments. The work explores the ‘fleeting beauty of time’—a quality shared by dancers and flowers— and seeks to capture, in a still image, the ephemeral movement of a romantic tutu in motion. Finally, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who assisted me in the creation of this work.”
The full list and details of the winning works from the 64th contest can be found on the contest website.
Released by: Office of General Affairs at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC)