Mayuko Sato won the 14th “1_WALL” Photography Competition with her photographs in which she projected her own feelings into her friends. She received kudos from the judging panel for what were hailed as her accurate expressions of the boredom and sense of entrapment felt by today’s younger generation. One judge stated that in Sato’s works the reality of photography is conveyed to the viewer.

Sato’s friends and she herself are photographed in everyday scenes – a haphazardly arranged furniture sales floor, the sparsely decorated waiting room of a public pool, a bleakly appointed room in a cheap apartment house, etc. – creating a sense of otherworldly displacement. Sato first draws a storyboard, conveys her concept to the person who will serve as her model, and then photographs. Later, she digitally edits her photos and transforms them into the images she has in mind. Sato’s photos are created as an outlet for her frustrations in life and her personal desires – the desire to stay young forever or to be loved by someone – and in them we find the life-size reality of the anguish felt by the 23-year-old artist herself.

This exhibition will center on four series: “That’s all,” with which she won the Grand Prize, plus three that she subsequently photographed: “No more,” “Still young in body” and “For use at night.” On February 9 (Thu), Mayuko Sato will take part in a talk event with art director Atsuki Kikuchi as her guest. The theme will be “Talking about being in one’s twenties: Seeking advice as to what to do to make a living.”