Focus on Japan 2007 was held August 3–11, 2007, with 16 participants from high schools in seven countries. Thanks to the guidance of local high school photography club advisors and the support of club members, the participants were able to spend five days interviewing and photographing people of various generations, from small children to elderly men and women, in four locations in Japan. It takes courage to talk to strangers, but not only did people respond to the participants’ requests to take photographs, many generously treated them to food and drink. Photography brought strangers together.
It was no mean feat for the four students of each of the four teams with different linguistic and national backgrounds to produce a single piece of work, but they all came up with wonderful presentations. We believe that they were able to learn a great deal about each other through working together on photo shooting sessions, exchanging views on each other’s pictures, and coming up with a message through which to convey their work.
Here, the staff who accompanied the groups introduce a dimension of the program that could not be included in the final presentations: behind-the-scenes shots and stories of the students and the people who helped make it possible.
Photographs: Honda Ryo, Nakajima Yuko, Yoshizato Hiroko, Nagata Noriko, Ueno Keiji, Kaneko Satoshi
