Ikuko Tsuchiya has won the Observer Hodge Photographic Award for 2000 and is preparing a photo spread for the newspaper's Observer Life magazine. we have obtained several of her photographs that show her ability to catch the essence of the human spirit in strong black and white portraits.  | | Ikuko Tsuchiya, winner of the Observer Hodge award. |
The 25-year-old from Japan has studied at Nottingham Trent for three years in the photography department and before that attended he Tokyo Institute for Polytechnics. Her supervisor at Nottingham Trent, Dr Philip Stokes, says: 'Ikuko's empathy with other people, her outstanding technical ability and above all her intelligence has brought her to the present milestone.' Her biggest project so far has been a photographic documentation of life in Botton village, Yorkshire, a community for people with learning disabilities, based on the Christian principles of Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. | "My life in whole Nottingham is spent in the dark. Working in the dark room for the whole day for my photography course ... going for a drink in the pub and then back home in the dark! |
The people at Botton live and work in an agricultural environment, and Ikuko uses her documentary style to show how they work happily and productively together. She first visited the community in 1997 when she travelled there to see her sister, who was spending the year as a volunteer in the village. Dr Stokes says Ikuko's work in Botton resulted in a deep and intense contact with the people there, who run farms, market gardens, food centres and a bakery. The Observer Hodge Award was established in 1986 in memory of photojournalist David Hodge who died at age 29 in the course of his work. The prize aims to give young photographers the chance to bring their work to a wider audience. She has also won the Fox Talbot Award in Japan and the Jack Jackson award in England, and has exhibited her work at the NEC in Birmingham and galleries in London, Nottingham and Tokyo. Here are several photographs from Botton Village that Ikuko has supplied to Nottingham:  |  | Farmworkers |
Other University high flyers include designer Billie Tuttle, science fantasy author Graham Joyce, and Chinese table tennis star Deng Yaping. | 
