“The Second Stage at GG” is a series of exhibitions presenting more recent works by former finalists in the gallery’s open competitions launched to promote budding artists in various fields. The works shown in “The Second Stage at GG” exhibitions are all created after these artists entered their respective fields as professionals. The series features works by finalists in the original “Hitotsubo” competitions that ran from 1992 to 2008 or in the superseding “1_WALL” competitions started in 2009.

The 35th exhibition in “The Second Stage at GG” series introduces the works of photographer Isamu Sakamoto, who was a finalist in the 27th “Hitotsubo” Photography Competition in 2006 with his entry “Where the Heck is India!!” Throughout the intervening time Sakamoto has continued to photograph and create spurred forward by the “urges” that brim over from within the depths of his soul. “Every photograph I take is to me what India was to Xuanzang*, who kept walking, step after step, toward India, not knowing where it was.” Sakamoto wants to photograph every place and every phenomenon to be found in the world, inspiring him to take up and work with subjects of all descriptions. In doing so, however, he doesn’t merely seek out stimulating visual experiences; rather, he searches to discover what he has never seen before in the casual expression of a close friend or in familiar scenery. What this is perhaps, to put it in different terms, is the kind of happiness Sakamoto himself spins from his thoughts and connections with others. “Everybody, I think, is aiming for his own India in his or her way,” he says. Through photography Sakamoto is walking toward his individual India. To find out where his journey has taken him so far, please come to his exhibition and see.

* Xuanzang was a Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar who, in the 7th century, set out for India on a quest for the “true” Buddhist scriptures.