Kazuaki Nozawa
My name is Kazuaki Nozawa. I was born in 1974 in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture in Japan.
I take photographs of sceneries and portraits in black and white
under ¡ÈKizuna (feeling of attachment)¡É as a main theme. I
love both taking and appreciating photographs. I feel very happy
doing them. I believe the joy they provide is a God sent gift.
[Encounter]
When I was a student, one of my friends brought his camera to school to take photos for a yearbook. I had a chance to get hold of his camera and see the classroom through its finder. As I set the focus, seeing the world that I did not see clearly came to look clear amazed me. It got me excited and I soon bought a SLR camera of my own; I had only 50mm f1.4 lens. At that time, I thought it was a great combo that enables me to take everything with it.
I was absorbed in taking photographs of my neighborhood and the nearby Lake Taga where I used to fish in my childhood.
I absolutely enjoyed taking photographs without a reason. I sought to be unique and different from others. Sometimes I moved nearer or sometimes I distanced from the objects, I made experiments with various combinations of shutter speed and aperture and even ignored following the exposure meter, which resulted in handful of dark photographs. I hunted to take a photograph of open sky. At times I crouched down, climbed up a bank, climbed a playground slide to take photographs of sky above. It was obvious that my one and only standard lens could not respond my desire. Despite many failures and shortcomings, I always felt excited seeing the finished photographs.
[Training]
I started out studying photography on a self-study. As my interest grew, I soon felt the limitation in my ability and desire to be taught by experts started to grow. I searched the web and found a photographic workshop called 2B held by a famed photographer Satoru Watanabe. I decided to learn photography from scratch. The lessons I attended were quite comprehensive. I learned how to calculate exposures, do darkroom works on monochromes and color prints, operating digital-camera, viewing photo, exhibiting photo and much more. I gained confidence and I enjoy photography more freely than before. I became free from reading exposure meter in many light conditions as I can do the calculation on my own. Thanks to Mr. Watanabe¡Çs saying, "Enjoy the freedom that even a failed photograph is a photograph" has freed me from nervousness and pressures.
[Theme]
The theme of my photography is ¡ÈKizuna (feeling of attachment).¡É I seek to bring the feeling of anxiety and solitude in life without Kizuna, peacefulness and calmness in life with Kizuna to the mind of viewers.