DH: In this case maybe it’s not that complicated. I think that many of us, myself included, are continually searching for “something”, be it love, friendship, community, family, sexual fulfilment or material gain. As a gay man, much of my life, especially in my early years, was spent searching for an identity that was acceptable to both society and myself. Sex has always been complicated and often dangerous. It goes without saying that often times when we finally get what we think we need…it leaves wanting for more. It’s our nature.

work for the prize was a nod in the direction of a more subjective way of working. I don’t believe that photography is objective, and not many people Several decades ago, during a psychosis-ridden period in his life, Mills discovered something entirely different in the forest of his mind: an enduring sense of harmony. Whether because of or despite his lengthy hospitalisation period, he came to feel in harmony with himself—and with his art: a substantial body of photographic work that includes an acclaimed street-photography collection. This work reaches a second, aesthetic height with its collection of provocative photomontages. In the distant past, Mills arrived at one of his key realisations while creating his early photomontages: “Every object is meaningful, and every individual is a glorious creation.” This oddly inspiring idea (also a private credo) remains no less relevant when studying the photomontages that Mills creates today. Beneath his lens, the women are freed from the gaze by which they are usually seen—sexual objects to be used and discarded. His images dig deeper into who they are. When possible, he has heard their stories; he has given them the dignity that most people crave—to be heard. She spoke no Chinese and RongRong no Japanese. Their initial dialogue was almost solely visual—they spoke to each other through their works. For almost two years, before inri moved to Liulitun, their love subsisted on the sharing of images and rudimentary linguistic communication. They invented a secret language of gestures, expressions, and smatterings of English, Mandarin and Japanese, and collaborated on photography art projects. Their debut collaboration took place during inri's first visit to China, almost ten months after they met. Naked together on the Great Wall, before the majestic silence of nature, they used a timer and let the camera bear witness.

in the film are also a convergence. There’s Tsîlhqot’in, Chinook, German, French, English and Cantonese.” EYEMAZING is a high quality Japan-based false eyelash brand which is very popular amongst Japanese fashionistas, particularly for gyaru and Harajuku styles. They are known for their collaborations with famous models and idols such as Amoyamo (Amo & Ayamo), Jun Komori and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Dreamy Bows is the sole UK & Europe distributor for EYEMAZING brand lashes.

Fairy Tales and then grounds them within a new context and composition that ignites new meanings. “The structure is a bit complicated. But then, the genre of investigating events is complicated. Plus, stories are complicated by their very nature. I am not interested in the simplicity that is offered in mass storytelling. Photography has had a tight connection with the older, some even say parental, medium of painting, since its very beginnings. Some may say the development of photography was driven by research in a variety of elements of visual representation, such as perspective and colour. It seemed that photography offered the holy grail of the painter’s quest—full and accurate representation. And in doing so, raised fears about the uselessness of painting. In the end photography managed to profile as the autonomous artistic medium, not a mere tool of painting, nor its enemy. It emancipated its artistic nature and escaped the qualities assigned to it by the negotiations of territory between painting and photography.Japanese photography in general shares a unique relationship with the ephemeral. As John Szarkowski and Yamagishi Shōji remind us, “All countries have changed greatly in the past quarter century, but perhaps none has changed so radically or with such dizzying speed as Japan.”1 Shidomoto, a photographer whose native Tokyo embodies the very meaning of radical change, employs this tradition beyond its historical momentum. One sees right away how change not only characterises the atmosphere in which Shidomoto works, but it defines the atmosphere of his own inward vision. Change is the muse—a way of seeing and understanding anew, at every moment, the fragile nature of all life’s lovely idiosyncrasies: the splash of a wave, the dead skin at the tips of our toes, even the cityscape which can disappear entirely in the light of the horizon. That is what my work speaks to. That is why I make the work. I take on western civilization’s highs and lows through the medium of photography.” Much of my work weaves together an investigation into my own heritage as well as the current social and political issues that the countries face. Even cast aside. This sadness was often countered by the heartening bonds and sisterhood that the widows created amongst themselves, bolstering one other and empowering the community in a way that I hadn’t expected.