MAMC members-only event: MAMC Night"Ume Kayo × Araki Natsumi Special Talk Event" Photo Report

On Tuesday, August 26, 2014, the MAMC Night event was held for individual MAMC members. The first part of the event was a gallery tour given by Araki Natsumi, the curator in charge of the "Go-Betweens: The World Seen through Children" exhibition. For the second part, a talk event by invited guest photographer Ume Kayo and the curator Araki Natsumi was held, where Ume Kayo presented some of her photographs and shared secrets about her approach to making them.

The first thing they talked about was the series, Junior High School Girls. Ume Kayo presented several works from the series that were not included in the current exhibition. While a student at technical college in Osaka, she asked a group of junior high school girls who were playing badminton on the street if they would let her take photographs of them. They subsequently became friends and Ume Kayo ended up photographing them at her dormitory. Ume Kayo's room in the background of the "School Girls" photographs, a place that represents her world is also interesting to see. She has decorated the room with ID photos of unknown people that she has picked up on the street, something that nowadays would be considered taboo. She shared with us many of such stories.

Next she discussed Shutter Chance: snapshots of likely, but rare encounters; of incidents we may have glimpsed but never thought of attempting to document; that contain elements so usual, they invariably make us laugh. There were a number of those photographs. She made everyone laugh heartily with her sharp wit and her funny stories of where, when and how she took each and every photograph, which are shot with a sensibility that is unique to Ume Kayo who always walks around carrying a camera.

The subject of the final series titled Long Live Grandpa! was Ume Kayo's own grandfather who lives in Noto. She began taking pictures of him when she was 18 years old, and they are filled with her love and affection for him and her wish that he continues to live for a very long time. Her grandmother, her sister and brother also appear, and she gave a charming account of the story behind the pictures. You just have to look at the pictures to fall in love with "Grandpa." Apparently, that "Grandpa" turns 98 this year. We want even more photographs of him - That was how everyone felt.

"When I took the photographs, I never imagined I'd be showing them to people in Roppongi, Tokyo!" So said Ume Kayo. She talked about 125 of her photographs in all.

After the Talk, she very kindly took commemorative photographs with the members at their request. There are few opportunities available to hear an artist talk about the stories behind their work, so MAMC Night provided a rare opportunity to do just that.

The 2 events combined - the Gallery Tour and the Talk Event - made for quite a long evening, but 49 people in total took part. We wish to say thank you to all of the MAMC members and our wonderful guest Ume Kayo for participating. We have another MAMC Night planned for November 25, 2014. We hope to see you there.

Gallery Tour conducted by Araki Natsumi.