Prize-winning works in the “Photo and Essay Division” for high school students of the 31st Yomiuri Photo Grand Prix

Are You Grown-Up or Still a Kid? No, I’m Just 17! / Nakanishi Aya (Kumamoto)

Message from the photographer

Is a seventeen-year-old a child or a grown-up? We can’t wait to grow up, but we don’t want to abandon our childhood at the same time—that’s what being seventeen is all about. From afar, Ayumi looks all grown up, but as you get to know her, you realize that she’s just a typical high school student. Ayumi has a lot of things I don’t have: people have been mistaking her for a high school student ever since she was in elementary school, whereas I am still taken for a junior high student! I admire Ayumi, who has the qualities of both a high school student and an adult. When will I ever get to grow up? I suppose I should first be recognized as a high school student!

About the subject

I met Ayumi at our high school entrance ceremony. She had such a dignified, mature look that it was hard for me to believe that she was in my grade. But I found out that she was just a high school girl after all. As we got to know each other, I began to see the high school side of her personality. I tried to portray both her the girlish and the grown-up sides.