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Gaijin Eye, 2009

By Japanzine Staff

Our Gaijin Eye competition has always been an over-subscribed affair, and none more so than this, the 2009 edition. Once again, we've perused and measured hundreds of entries, and the jewels outweigh the stools 10 to 1. Those gaijin eyes of yours are talented organs. You should take care of them. Remove them at least once daily and bathe them in shouchu. It's a tried and tested method, practiced successfully by 97% of Japan's workforce every evening, and look how clearly they see the world.

So what exactly is a gaijin eye?

Gaijin Eye has never been about celebrating postcard photography, and it's certainly not a forum for your holiday snaps (no matter how funny they seemed when you took them). The published pics were chosen for a number of reasons, not least their innate Japanese-ness. We believe that these photos represent an aspect of this country that is unique, and largely unnoticed by the locals themselves, be it the passive violence of a cornershop woman loading up a gun (Paul Olejarczuk's Don't Mess With Miss Bunny) or the impossible Neverland quality of Christian Townsend's Sunset Gion. If such an accolade exists, Townsend may well be the winner of this year's competition. He consistently demonstrated an understanding of what Gaijin Eye event is all about, and his entries were uniformly fantastic. The vivid cover photo that caught your attention in the bar this evening is his. Nice one, Christian. Hope to see you again next year.

And with that, we urge you back to your cameras. Keep a look out for details on how to enter the competition again towards the end of summer, 2009. In the meantime... happy snapping, gaijin eyes!

To view all of the submissions For the 2009 Gaijin Eye check out the following two galleries.

http://gallery.me.com/thegaijineye/100014

http://gallery.me.com/thegaijineye/100010

To view which images were selected pick up the copy of the January 6 edition of Japanzine!

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