‘Capture your Emotion’ Award Announcement | Challenge #16

‘Capture your Emotion’ is a global online photo contest open to all creators registered on cizucu, organized in collaboration with Zenkyō-an.
This edition’s theme was ‘Expression of Emotion’. The idea was conceived by Zenkyō-an’s head priest, Mr. Uematsu, based on his experience teaching photography at university—constantly questioning how to face one’s inner self and express it daily.
The contest received an impressive number of emotionally resonant and outstanding submissions, far exceeding expectations. As a reward, the works of the seven awardees will be exhibited at Zenkyō-an on July 22 (Sat) and 23 (Sun), 2023.

だいひょう
“#キバナコスモス”

cizucu Editorial Team
The orange flower—perhaps more accurately described as tangerine in Japanese. Is it orange, or tangerine? The choice of color language and how it is captured in the photograph makes us wonder about the emotions the photographer imbued in this work.

加藤溪山

cizucu Editorial Team
This withered lotus encapsulates tranquility and delicacy. It is a beautiful photograph that resonates with the Japanese sensibility of wabi-sabi—a beauty that is unchanged and that we hope remains so. The photographer’s sense of spaciousness is palpable in this work.

sora.KagiAke
“Spreading in the Puddle”

cizucu Editorial Team
Puddles are usually something we avoid. Yet, the photographer’s curiosity and pure sensibility are evident in the way they paused to observe the scenery reflected in the puddle.

Kuni…
“Loneliness”

cizucu Editorial Team
A rabbit sits quietly, with no sign of people around—so much so that it evokes a sense of solitude. We cannot know if rabbits feel loneliness, but at the very least, this photograph instills that feeling in us.

らっしぃ
“Water flows in many ways. It moves in various directions, gathers, and then spreads.”

cizucu Editorial Team
The water flows smoothly. Water is always moving, and no two moments are ever the same. What made the photographer choose this particular moment among the many flows of water? This is a work that invites such curiosity.

Kuni…
“Hidden Feelings”

cizucu Editorial Team
Light penetrates the water, illuminating the minute particles and living organisms drifting within. This fantastical scene evokes the sensation of having entered another world.

Sentimental＿Jong
“Kangaku School”

cizucu Editorial Team
In a space that conveys tranquility, a solitary man sits. Through the photographer’s lens, it seems as though the artist is projecting their own ideal self or inner world onto the subject. The relationship between the photographer and the subject is also thoughtfully considered in this work.

Thank you very much for participating in the photo contest ‘Capture your Emotion: Emotions Reside in the Dew’. The theme this time was ‘Expressing Emotion’.
Even for those who regularly take photographs, expressing intangible emotions may have been a challenge that required much trial and error.

We tend to judge things by values such as ‘good or bad’, ‘beautiful or ugly’, ‘like or dislike’... However, to express one’s own emotions, it is necessary to transcend such values, to see things as they are, and to express them authentically. Works that truly encounter and express the artist’s emotions are filled with the same sparkling freshness as when one first picked up a camera, no matter how many years or decades they have been photographing.

At Zenkyō-an, we hope to continue providing opportunities for such exhibitions. We wish to meet as many artists as possible who earnestly face the act of expression. For those who create, the journey of self-reflection never ends. We hope that everyone who has viewed this contest will take this opportunity to turn their lens toward their own emotions, and we look forward to your participation in the next edition.