Overall Review from Judges

LESLIE KEE

First of all, I very much enjoyed participating in this photo contest as a judge.
After carefully looking through the works of hairstylists and students, I really struggled to make a decision for the judging process.
I feel that they worked very hard on the design, the quality of the photos, and most importantly, the concept of the hair and makeup, and created a better work than I had imagined.
I have been doing this job for 22 years, and I am still convinced that creating works of art is very important.
I was also very encouraged by seeing the hard work of the hairstylists and students from all over Japan and their works. I will do my best as well.

UDA

I believe that opportunities such as this one provide creators with a chance to take in many things and move forward.
I was very energized by the overflowing creativity of the participants, and I felt that many of the works had the potential to become great works of art.
However, there was one distinguishable difference in the work I chose: it has outstanding direction.
I think that the final work depends on that. This is about picture making, no matter how good your technique or your ability to make sales. I think you need a different perspective from the work you do at the salon.
With that in mind, I advise you to focus on direction when you create your work in the future.
How do you want it to look? How do you want it to be seen, how do you want it to appear?
If you are more conscious of this than ever before, you may encounter a new work of art!
I strongly hope that I can hone my sensitivity and help make this industry as enjoyable as you do.
Good luck!

TONDABAYASHI, RAN

I think there are not many opportunities for hairstylists to create visuals with the overall direction in mind, in addition to creating the hairstyle. This event has a great theme because considering the overall direction is in fact very important when creating hairstyles.
Some of the photos were very good but the logos were not well-balanced, and vice versa. I was torn about where to base the judging criteria, including the inclusion of the event theme, but I judged the entries with an emphasis on overall balance.
It surely was a challenging theme, but I found it interesting to see the various ways of expression gathered.

NINOMIYA, Chie

It was interesting to see works that were not like the typical beauty-related works!
The student works also had many interesting ideas and different angles of view, even if they were not quite perfect yet.
The judges' perspectives also varied, so I am sure there were many different evaluations.
With that in mind, I look forward to seeing even more free and interesting works next year.

MITSUI, Akiko

The competition, which required skills beyond the field of hair and makeup to create visuals, must have been unfamiliar and challenging for the hairstylists.
Nevertheless, we were able to see many attractive works as many of the participants had excellent design (layout, etc.) as well as a great sense of photography.
The judging process was very stimulating and enjoyable, and I found it very difficult to decide which entries to select.
The theme of this year's event itself was a little different from the themes you usually create. Many of you may have found it a bit difficult, but there were many works that responded to the theme with charming ideas.
I was honored to be able to review and judge so many works full of energy.
Thank you very much for this precious opportunity.