Still Life Shortlist

“Don't treat food poorly.” “Leaving food uneaten is wasteful.” – These are words that are commonly spoken to children by adults at the dining table, the same that were spoken to this artist as a Japanese child. But are these words actually true? While Japan is among the lowest-ranked developed nations in terms of food self-sufficiency, it is also among the countries that produce the most food waste per person. I wanted to give a voice to the food that was sacrificed to become products that went uneaten and wasted in Japan – having elapsed past their expiration dates, or been discarded because they didn’t have the right colour or shape. This project involves placing toy eyes on the ‘subjects’ (items of food waste) to transform them into characters – an effort to visualise the lives that vanish in the process of discarding food.

Ichio Usui was born in 1983, Japan. He is a professional photographic artist based in Japan. He graduated Japan Institute of Photography and Film. While he started working at an IT company, he started taking photographs. After that, he attended a special photograph school and learned about photograph in earnest while working. He started his career as a photographer after graduating from school. He has worked together with his wife as "Chika & Ichio Usui" since 2016.