The portfolio review had been held in Double Tree Hotel before. But there was still the influence of last year’s hurricane damage, White Hall Hotel became a venue this time.
これまでずっとDouble Tree Hotelが会場でしたが、昨年ヒューストンを襲ったハリケーンの影響がまだ残っていたため、今年はWhite Hall Hotelが会場となりました。

It was a good season to visit this time of year. The diurnal temperature rose high and one day it got up to 28 degrees Celsius. We felt cold because the air-conditioning in the hotel room was too strong.
この時期のヒューストンはとても気持ちのよい気候ですが、日中は28℃とかなり暑くなることもありました。なので、会場は冷房が効きすぎで寒く感じることも……。

The first day of the portfolio review got started. Basic precautions were announced. Every morning we checked the information which was put on the wall and saw which table the reviewers would be.
ポートフォリオレビューの初日。レビュー会場の前のロビーでは注意事項などが発表されました。毎朝、レビュワーがどのテーブルに座るのか貼り出されます。

After we arrived at Houston airport, we went to White Hall Hotel to check in. There, we saw a Russian organizer who had invited Yoshida to the international photo exhibition once and asked him to see our artworks.
ヒューストン空港からレビューのチェックインのために会場のホテルへ。吉田先生が招待されたロシアの国際写真フェスティバルのオーガナイザーを見つけたので全員が作品を見てもらいました。

We also showed our artworks to gallery owners of Blue Sky Gallery. They are the host of portfolio Review “photolucida” in Portland. It was a good practice for the actual presentation at Meeting Place, starting from the following day.
ポートランドで開催されているポートフォリオレビュー”Photolucida”を主催するブルースカイ・ギャラリーのオーナー夫妻にも見ていただきました。翌日からの本番のためのよい経験にもなりました。

Actually, they weren’t registered as reviewers this time. So we had to ask them at the lobby and showed our photographs by ourselves. At the actual portfolio review, we had to give a presentation within a time limit of 20 minutes. But there was no time limit to show our photographs at the lobby, so we were all relaxed.
じつは彼らはレビュワーになっていないので、こうしてこちらから声をかけてロビーで見てもらうしかチャンスはありません。レビューのように20分と時間が決められていないので落ち着いてできるメリットもあります。

This was Aoyama’s very first photo review. She said she worried about giving presentation without an interpreter, so Hasumi and Yoshida were there with her to help. But on the final day, she finally could do the presentation all by herself. We were impressed by her rapid progress.
レビュー自体が初体験の青山さんは通訳さんがいないと不安ということなので蓮見さんや吉田先生が通訳につくこともありましたが、最終日には落ち着いて一人でできるようになりました。進歩がとても速かったです。

As it was Motoko Sato’s first photo review abroad, she was with her interpreter almost every time. But on the third day, she tried to do the presentation by herself. Some of the reviewers said that they wanted to purchase her artworks. She also made a good appeal for having her photo exhibition.
海外でのレビューが初めての佐藤素子さんもずっと通訳さんについてもらっていましたが、3日目には一人でできるように……。「作品を買いたい」というお話をもらったり、「写真展開催」を上手くアピールしていました。

It was Chiyoda’s second challenge for FOTO FEST. Every time she finished her presentation, she checked what was missed at the presentation. Then she added them to next presentation. Last time Chiyoda was asked to make a handmade photo book of her, she made one and brought it to the photo review this time. It achieved a successful outcome.
FOTO FESTは2回目の千代田さんは1つのレビューが終わる毎に、自分のプレゼンに足りないことを加えていきました。前回、ハンドメイドの写真集を作ってくるよう言われたことを実現してきたことも功を奏しました。

Hasumi showed platinum prints to the reviewers this time. He made the artworks integrate with digital photography. His artworks had high reputation and Hasumi got an offer to hold a photo exhibition at Southeast Museum in Daytona State College next year.
蓮見さんの今回はプラチナプリント作品。しかも、従来のものではなく、デジタル技術と融合させています。そこが評価され、すでに来年のフロリダ州立デイトナ大学のSoutheast Museumでの写真展が決まりました。

It was Maeta’s second challenge for the portfolio review in a foreign country. He once had joined the photo review in 2014 in Arles, France. He brought a picture book that he made using his photos and contrived ways to do presentation. He seemed that he succeeded to make reviewers inspire his artworks.
2014年開催のフランス・Arlesでのポートフォリオレビュー以来の海外のレビューだった前田さんはコラボした絵本を持参してプレゼン方法を工夫しました。今回の経験によってとても大きなものを掴んだようです。

It’s fourth time of the portfolio review for Yoshida. He presented his new work. His artworks were created by classical technique, called ambrotype photography. He combined the photo with digital technique and made new artworks. It was highly valued by the reviewers and Yoshida got a lot of proposals to hold photo exhibitions.
4回目の参加となった吉田先生の作品はアンブロタイプという古典技法。デジタル技術との組み合わせであることと仕上がりの美しさが大いに認められ、いくつものEXHIBITION開催の話をもらいました。

After the review, we joined a free bus tour to see another photo exhibition. Many reviewers were coming as well, so it was a great opportunity to communicate with them.
レビューが終わるとホテルから無料のバスが出て、各所で行なわれているEXHIBITION見学へ出かけました。これにはレビュワーさんたちも一緒なので気軽にコミュニケーションできるいい機会にもなります。

There is a famous fine art photo museum in Houston. We could visit many other photo studios. They held not only photo exhibitions but gave various workshops.
ヒューストンには有名なファインアート写真美術館もありますが、こうしたスタジオがいくつもあり、ここではEXHIBITIONだけでなく、ワークショップなども開かれています。

Every photo studio was big and we enjoyed seeing many kinds of artworks. The wide range of the photo expressions inspired us and we were all overwhelmed by their sense of photography. The experiences in oversea portfolio were exciting and refreshing.
スタジオはどれも広く、さまざまな展示作品を見ることができました。また、写真表現の幅の広さを如実に感じました。こうした得難い刺激をもらえるのも海外でのポートフォリオレビューならではでしょう。