Page 58 - APH_Feb21_Special

WINNER
JUNIOR
BLINDING COLOUR
JAKE FRAZER
@jf.frazer
16-year-old Northern Rivers photographer Jake Frazer captured this evovative, filmlike image in January 2020 while sitting on a tram in Kamakura, Japan.
“I was probably scrolling Instagram,” he tells us, “amazed at all the impossibly creative and meaningful photographs on there, and almost completely missed the scene laid out before my eyes.”
With spitting rain to add mood, cloud cover for lighting, a vignette of patient humans and a driver; perfectly silhouetted, all the ingredi- ents were there for a stunning image.
“Fumbling for my camera, it occurred to me... How many of these picture-perfect shots have I missed due to distraction? I was scared to intrude, but knew that regret would follow if I didn’t take a chance.” The rest, as they say, is history.
WHAT THE JUDGES’ SAID ANTHONY MCKEE: You don’t always have to be looking directly into someone’s face to learn something about them. This “portrait” by Jake Frazer reveals daily life to us somewhere in Asia (I’m guessing Japan); it is a beautiful com- position that hints at the nature of this tram driver, sitting up front in cab of his vehicle while shuttling passengers along a route that we can assume they
are all too familiar with. Umbrellas and lashings of rain on the front windows tell us about the conditions of the day, while the shoes, bags and a walking stick hint at who some of the passengers might be. It is a simple photograph in its design and yet tells a beautiful story. Jake has called this image “Blinding Colour”, although “masking colour” would be equally apt. In colour, the sig- nage at the top of the frame would have been very distracting; in this black and white interpretation we get to quietly enjoy the journey that driver is taking his passengers on.
MARK GALER: Photographs of people with their backs to the camera are seldom successful. With this image, however, I would have it no other way. This, for many of us, is the only view of the driver we ever see. The lack of the view beyond the driver, due to in- clement weather, also serves to arrest the viewer’s attention at the intended focal point of the image, as our eyes are drawn through the carriage way. The small tilt of the driver’s head only adds to our interest. It is not often a single image conveys an unusual nar- rative, but this one speaks volumes.
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