April 19 2024
East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd.
Hokkaido Regional Head Office

The 14th Hokkaido Expressway Four Seasons Photo Contest once again received a total of 560 excellent submissions from all over Hokkaido and beyond. With the long period of COVID-19 prevention measures finally coming to an end, we were able to visually experience the past year that everyone has spent out and about in all parts of Hokkaido.

In the "Landscape with Expressway" section, many efforts were made to bring out the formative appeal and narrative from the subject Expressway, and the winning entry from this year's group of outstanding works was a romantic treatment of Expressway. The Grand Prize winner, "Embraced by the Galaxy," uses long exposures to poetically match the median road that crosses the land and the stars in the sky above. The contact point of the Milky Way, which stretches vertically, and the trajectory of the Expressway car lights that run through it from left to right, reminded us of the flow of human time and the eternal flow of nature, and made us feel philosophical.

"Planting Seedlings," winner of the Grand Prize in the "Four Seasons of Hokkaido" category, is a picturesque work that captures spring farm work in near symmetry. The lower half of the work is a one-point perspective space in which the ridges of the fields look like a figure eight, while the upper half shows the outline of Mt. Yotei and the remaining snow on the peak, which also look like a figure eight, creating a pleasing visual rhythm. At the same time, the position of the mountain is slightly shifted to the left and the shape of the remaining snow is irregular, making for a fun composition. I think it also has a dynamic style that is common to the paintings of Mt. Fuji by the master of Japanese painting, Tamako Kataoka (born in Hokkaido).

In the next (15th) public call for entries, we will start a new initiative, the "Scenery with Expressway in Instagram" category. We look forward to receiving works that have a live appeal that is different from professional photography with a tripod.
As symbolized by the increase in inbound tourism, this year is set to be an increasingly vibrant one for various regions. We look forward to the 15th contest, which will bring about even more travel, sensibility, and new vocabulary that will allow participants to further discover the diversity of the "Four Seasons of the Hokkaido Expressway."

profile

Ryusuke Ito
Born in Sapporo in 1963. Videographer. In the field of art film and video art, he makes presentations at film festivals and museums in Japan and overseas. Currently, he is involved in the education of video and media art including photography at Hokkaido Kyoiku University. There are also many manga reviews under the name of "Kenji Murasame". Professor, Imaging Laboratory, Department of Arts and Sports Culture, Hokkaido Kyoiku University. Completed the Graduate School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The NEXCO EAST Group has positioned the period from FY2021 to FY2025 as "a period that contributes to the achievement of the SDGs and transforms into a new future society," and is making various efforts.
We believe that this "Hokkaido Expressway Four Seasons Photo Contest" will contribute to SDGs Nos. 8 and 17 as business activities that will lead to the promotion of sustainable tourism and the revitalization of local communities.