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“There’s a Story Behind the Short Cut” – Bookdol Union Vol. 2: Shortcut Girl Photo Book, 0410 (Short)

“ショートカットには物語がある” −「ブクドルユニオン」第二回:ショートカットの女の子の写真集『0410(ショート)』
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“There’s a Story Behind the Short Cut” – Bookdol Union Vol. 2: Shortcut Girl Photo Book, 0410 (Short)

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On October 24th (Saturday), the second volume of the talk and live concert event, Bookdol Union, directed by expert idol writer Shinshi Okajima, was held at dues Shinjuku. This time the event commemorated the release of the photo book 0410 (Short) by the Short Cut Promotion Committee.

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The Short Cut Promotion Committee is a committee that was formed in order to create photo books of girls with short cuts. The first book was self-published via crowd funding and was released last year in July. This year on September 1st, the second book, 0410 (Short), was published.

Erika Iida, the young female photographer that shot the images used in the photo book, along with model Hina Koyama from Kamiyado, Haruhi Nakajima from Junes☆Princess, and model Chifumi Horikoshi made an appearance at the talk event, during which we were told how the models were selected, why, and stories from the photo book shoot, in addition to never before revealed short cut stories from each of the girls.

Shinshi Okajima (MC): Ms. Iida, you go by the title “young female photographer”.

Erika Iida: Yes, that’s right. I began photography in order to shoot young women.

Okajima: How did you first come to appreciate young female models?

Iida: Last year I was given the opportunity to do the Miss iD offshots. I met Ms. Horikoshi at the auditions, and it was love at first site. There I also met Haruhi Nakajima.This time CHEERZ (an idol supporting app where idols upload pictures and are ranked by points they receive by users; they are always doing various collaboration projects) added a short cut tag on their collaboration page, and on it I saw Haruhi and Hina doing everything they could to give their all during a performance. CHEERZ mainly revolves around its ranking system, but the Short Cut Promotion Committee stated that selections would be made regardless of ranking, so I chose girls who seemed to have that “pull” to them. Haruhi’s CHEERZ is amazing. She posted many photographs detailing her “short” history up until now.

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Haruhi Nakajima: Ever since I was a kid I’ve always worn my hair short, so I have a pretty good amount of photos with different kinds of “short” hair on me. I thought now was a good chance to upload them, so I uploaded a lot of them.

Okajima: Did you have any kind of guideline in mind when selecting models?

Iida: I find almost all of my models on Twitter. There are many girls posting selfies or their own work. I almost exclusively use Twitter to find girls, so much that my “Recommended User” list is nothing but girls.

Okajima: What was it like participating in the shoot, Hina?

Hina Koyama: Um… Let’s see, well… I had never been photographed on my own before, but (Ms. Iida) was really nice. I really enjoyed the place with the antique furniture that we used as one of the shooting locations. I’d like to do it again. I hope I have the opportunity.

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Iida: I have a studio where I always shoot at. It has a lot of antique furniture. Instead of idol-like photos in costumes, I think fashion photos are better. But even with costumes, by using make-up provided by brands we have a relationship with and flowers, we can shoot with a different mood that’s cuter than usual.

Koyama: It’s very rare that I get to take solo shots. Only since I’ve made it into the CHEERZ rankings, so I was really, really nervous. But the shoot had the soft, pink atmosphere that I like (laugh)… so I was really happy. (laugh)

Nakajima: My photos were taken with a big, blue sky, and it was my first photo shoot at a studio, but because the weather was so sunny, we ended up shooting on the roof. While we were shooting I thought about how refreshing and wonderful the sky was. For the indoor photographs, I was photographed inside a room that appeared in the movie Ii Nioi no Suru Eiga, for which Ms. Iida was in charge of stills for.

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Iida: I thought it would be good to link the locations. The chair in the pictures is the same one that the main lead Rie Kaneko sat in.

Each of the photos in 0410 (Short) and models have their own story. The setting is summer vacation, where a boy in the photography club is following ten girls with short haircuts around.

Iida: We came up with the phrase “There’s a story behind the short cut”. For short cuts, when it comes to cutting your hair, for many it requires having some reasons, as well as a commitment to keeping it short. Most of them are detail-oriented. I wanted to show the goodness of short cut hair with photo story. The writer who wrote the story is also a girl, but we thought about having the setting be this way, and created it through our discussions.

Okajima: Chifumi, you had the backstory of a girl that takes the form of a cat. Were you puzzled about that?

Horikoshi: It was rather sudden.

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Iida: It’s hard to shoot animals because you can’t control what they do. To begin with it wouldn’t come out from under the bed for about an hour. (laugh) But because both a girl and a cat is the most cunning combination there is, we were glad to take the pictures of it.

Okajima: How did you decide on the story and the girl?

Iida: Since the release date had already been decided for September 1, we made the setting about a student from an all boys high school who was taking pictures during summer vacation, created a plot map by making one of the major plot points his relationship with a girl. We thought about how it would look if the girl was a younger cousin or a school girl, and decided on it with Sasaki, our representative.

Okajima: Why was Chifumi a cat?

Iida: Last year when I was part of the Miss iD photo shoot, watching Chifumi, I felt some distance like I was an outsider, not sure if it was my place to call out to her or not. So I superimposed that view with the point of view of a male high school student. Chifumi is the girl the male student wants to take a picture of, like “the friend of a friend you want to be introduced to”. At the same time, he wants to take a picture of her with a cat, so they decide to go her house and to take pictures and when they do, she tells him, “Actually the cat is me.” The setting is something like that.

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Okajima: What did you all think when you saw the photo book?

Nakajima: When I was a little girl, there weren’t many girls with short hair, so people always remembered me as having short cut hair. But now a lot of cute girls have short cuts, so I think it’s good people have changed their mind about them.

Koyama: Short cuts were often associated with being boyish so it was hard and I didn’t like them very much. But growing your hair out is annoying, so I’ve kept it like this, though when I saw the photo book I thought everyone looked cute. I began to think that even girls with short cuts can be cute, so I want to take more pride in my short cut.

Horikoshi: Well… Everyone is cute so I’m not really sure.

Okajima: Oh, so you’re not really sure. (laugh) Do you often look at pictures of girls on the net?

Horikoshi: Yes, I do. I look at idols and girls who take selfies.

Okajima: Do you talk to them?

Horikoshi: Not really. They’re all so cute so I would feel bad if they saw me.

Okajima: Like putting that cuteness into words would somehow defile their cuteness?

Horikoshi: Something like that…

Okajima: But short hair is more convenient than long hair, right?

Nakajima: It is. It’s easy to wash and dry. Even if it gets messy during concerts all you have to do is comb it out. But I have curly hair so if I let it grow out it will start to get curly, so I always keep it a specific length and style.

Koyama: I haven’t cut my hair in about two months. This is my limit. I prefer to cut it once a month.

Horikoshi: I always tell them to give me a bob. …It’s pretty much the same style of bob every time.

Okajima: Finally, Ms. Iida, what do you think are the charms of having a short cut?

Iida: The number of short bobs have increased, and for the most part I think their image has changed. I think the charm of a short cut is that it has a nice shape. It’s better not to hide your face. Also because each person has a strong personality, it’s fun to take their picture.

At the end of the talk show, Hina held a solo concert performance and rock-scissors-paper battle, and Junes☆Princess also gave a concert. From the free talk about the deep thoughts surrounding short cuts and the stories from behind the scenes of the photo shoot, the talk show gave us an opportunity to understand the deep feelings that went into each photo.

Photo by Fuchizaki
Translated by Jamie Koide

Now we are having Give Away campaign for the photo book, so please check it out too!
http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/shortcut-photobook-giveaway-20151063970.html

Related links
Book Union Shinjuku:http://blog-bibliophilic-bookunion-shinjuku.diskunion.net
Short Cut Promotion Committee : http://shortgirl.jp/
JUNES PRINCESS official site : http://www.junespro.com/talent/unit.php?id=1
Kamiyado official site : http://kmyd.targma.jp/
Chifumi Horikoshi Twitter : https://twitter.com/chifumi_h
Shinshi Okajima Twitter : https://twitter.com/ok_jm

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Related Artists : KAMIYADO
Author
Reiichi Narima

Writer, TV drama critic. Born in 1976. Writing in various genres ; TV drama, manga, anime, film, and idol. His representative works "TV Drama wa Johnny's mono dake wo miro" and "Character drama no tanjo TV Drama wo koshin suru 6nin no kyakuhonka".

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