Last year I joined the All Japan Alpine Photographers Association. I had been intending to join some national scale photography association for a while and when I ran into a member during a hike two years ago I decided I would join that one first. To join you first have to submit photos for their annual exhibition and contest. I hadn’t submitted anything for a contest since a stock agency in Tokyo took on my photos because I was advised that it would not look good if I was a recognized professional photographer who was entering contests and not getting first prize (not that I was or even am now recognized as a pro but they were thinking ahead - well ahead!). But I entered and I made it past the judging and was permitted to apply to be a member.
This year I entered some photos for their annual exhibition and got word that the photo they had selected of mine was to be enlarged to about 3’x4’. This was good news because I knew from last year that the larger photos not only attracted more attention but were also often prize winners. There are many sponsors – camera manufacturers, film makers, camera bag manufacturers and so on – and they each donate something to be given away as a prize. After sending a message to the member whom had met in the mountains, he confirmed that the larger photos were often the prize winners.
Then yesterday during my classes I got two phone calls from the same number. It was the association’s office. I called back and was told I had won the Hasselblad Prize for this year. That was great news! I wondered what I had won. The awards ceremony was being held on Saturday but I was at work (still here now typing too). But Sunday I (tomorrow) I am going with some friends to see the exhibition so I will find out what I won then.
Hassalblad is a kind of cult-status manual camera that shoots square photos of 6x6cm. Their cameras are expensive and sometimes they issue special limited edition models that can fetch over $6,000 new or over $10,000 used. I would be thrilled just to have a plain Jane regular model.
Winning prizes in Japanese photo contests is interesting. Previously I entered about three dozen contests and placed in about a dozen or so. Sometimes I won a trophy and some gift certificates for major department stores. Sometimes I got something like a clock or some kind of almost useless camera gear stuff as a prize for being selected for the contest exhibition but not for a prize.
The most memorable prize, however, was the time I won the grand prize in a contest sponsored by the Okhotsk Sea Ice Research Museum, located on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. I was sent about $500 worth of high quality seafood, including a massive crab, and even more memorably, I received a 15kg chunk of sea ice taken from the Sea of Okhostk (between Hokkaido and Siberia). The courier came with a Styrofoam box with the waybill saying “sea ice”. It was a warm spring and I had to keep that block of ice in the box on my kitchen floor until it had melted to a size small enough to stuff in an empty spaghetti sauce jar and put it in my freezer, where it stayed for almost a year.
