故郷と呼べる場所、そしてWelcomeBack Planのご案内
Equipment: EOS 5 (film), EF 50mm
Year: February 2011
誰しも「故郷」と呼べる場所がいくつかあるはずです。
私にとって故郷はどこか、と問われれば、生まれたのは大阪市天王寺区にある「聖バルナバ病院」という当時ヴォーリズ建築の建物で有名だった由緒ある産院こそ、生まれ故郷です。幼少期に住んでいた城東区今福のマンションや幼稚園のあった蒲生四丁目周辺もそうです。多くの時間を過ごした両親の実家がある岡山県の児島も故郷に違いありません。
そして、大学4年間（滋賀の実家から往復およそ5時間かけての通学でしたが………）を過ごした京都も、心の故郷です。
しかしながら、それ以上に私が「故郷」だと思えるのは、兎にも角にも名古屋です。社会人としての基礎をイチから叩き込まれ、ビジネスマンというより「商売人」として一人前に育てていただいたのは、紛れもなく新卒で入社した企業とそこで出逢った方々のおかげでした。
役職付きには届かなかったものの、一般社員（今思えば、不良のギリギリ幹部候補生でした…笑）としてはそこそこの収入を捨てて、給与水準が著しく低くて有名な（不名誉な話ですが…笑）ブライダル業界に転じ、ウエディングフォトグラファーに転身しました。
そこでも奇跡的な人との出逢いに恵まれ、素人目に「写真のクオリティ高すぎ」と思っていた業界のトップ企業になぜか、転職することが出来…。
2009年からは覚王山という高級住宅街に新しくオープンする結婚式場の担当チームに配属され、そこでオープニングスタッフとして3年半、それこそ全身全霊で働いた、と思います…。出会うお客様に恵まれ、サービスマンとしても、フォトグラファーとしても本当に成長できました…。
その後、名古屋から移住し、個人事業主として独立した宮城県南三陸町、その後2年を過ごした仙台、濃密な計3年を過ごした東北も、私にとっては心の故郷に違いありません。
とにかく、結婚式や家族写真を撮影させていただいた日々は、私にとってまぎれもなく、宝物です。今もなお、感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです。
フォトグラファーはまずもって接客・営業職であり、同時に技術職・専門職でもあります。そして、技術職・専門職の側面からいうと、お客様のご依頼があって初めて仕事があり、その仕事を重ねることで技術を高めていくサイクルが生まれます。
そういうわけで、私をこれまで育てて下さったのは、たとえば勤務先の上司や業界の先輩方もそうですが、それ以上にお客様との出会いこそが私にとって最大の成長の糧といえます。糧というと若干失礼な表現ですが、比喩でも何でもなく、それで生活を営ませて頂いてきたから、そうなのです。
Equipment: EOS 5D Mark II, EF 50mm F1.4, No Flash
Year: March 2014
A Place to Call "Home" and WelcomeBack Plan
Everyone must have several places that they can call "home".
If one were to ask me where my hometown is, I would say that I was born in "St. Barnabas Hospital" in Tennoji Ward, Osaka City, a venerable maternity hospital that was famous at the time for Vories-architecture. The same is true of the area around Gamo 4-chome, where I lived as a child in an apartment in Imafuku, Joto-ku, and where my kindergarten was located. Kojima in Okayama where my parents' hometown, I spent much of time there, must also be my hometown.
And Kyoto, where I spent four years of Ritsusmeikan university (although it took me about five hours to commute there and back from my parents' house in Shiga...), is also my hometown in my heart.
However, what I consider "home" even more than another place is Nagoya. It is unquestionably thanks to the company I joined as a new graduate and the people I met there that I was trained from the ground up in the basics of working life and brought up to be a full-fledged "AKINDO" means a merchant rather than a businessman.
I left behind a modest income as an ordinary employee without a position (I was a delinquent/executive candidate...lol) and switched to the bridal industry, which is famous for its extremely low salary level (disgraceful story...lol), and became a wedding photographer.
There, too, I was blessed with miraculous encounters with people, and somehow I was able to move on to a top company in the industry, which, in layman's terms, I thought was "too high quality wedding photography...".
In 2009, I was assigned to the team in charge of a newly opened wedding hall in the upscale residential area of Kakuozan, where I worked as the opening staff for three and a half years with all my might.... I was blessed with the customers I met, and I grew as a service person and a photographer.
After that, I moved from Nagoya to Minamisanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture, where I started my own business as a sole proprietor, and then to Sendai, where I spent two intense years, making a total of three years, Tohoku region must be my spiritual home, too.
Anyway, the days I spent shooting weddings and family portraits are undeniably a treasure for me. Even now, I am filled with gratitude.
A photographer is first of all a customer service and sales person, and at the same time, a technical and professional person. In terms of technical/professional work, a photographer is only able to work when there is a client's request, and this work creates a cycle in which the photographer is able to improve his/her skills.
In this sense, the people who have nurtured me over the years include my bosses at my workplace and my seniors in the industry, but more than that, it is my encounters with clients that have been the greatest source of nourishment for my growth. It may sound a bit rude to call them my "bread and butter," but I don't mean it in a figurative sense.
