Beyond your imagination at your workplace: Yoshie Ushimaru at TEDxHGU
The speaker, Yosierimaru, shares how his passion for photography unexpectedly developed through his diplomatic work at the US Consulate General in Sapporo. He argues that professional roles can unexpectedly intersect with deep personal interests, illustrating this with photos taken in New York that highlight how viewpoint changes the perception of a single scene. He concludes that the workplace, rather than just school, is a fertile ground for discovering unexpected strengths and interests. ## Speakers & Context - **Yosierimaru** — Speaker; former student of HDU. - Yosierimaru's current workplace is the **US Consulate General Sapporo**, an American diplomatic office within the **US Department of State**. - Yosierimaru's role involves promoting deep understanding of American culture in Japan and is responsible for reference, research, youth outreach, and promoting study in the United States. - The talk is intended to encourage young students attending the TEDex HDU event to view their futures optimistically, especially after graduation. ## Theses & Positions - Professional duties can unexpectedly lead to deep personal passions, such as photography. - The process of learning to see through photography forces the development and understanding of various perspectives and cultures. - The workplace is a potential source for discovering strengths, weaknesses, skills, and interests, potentially more so than formal schooling. - Curiosity and the willingness to engage with new experiences are key to unlocking these unexpected paths. ## Concepts & Definitions - **US Department of State:** Equivalent to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or *gao* in Japan. - **Diplomacy/Public Diplomacy:** The promotion of understanding using culture and visual media. - **Viewpoint/Perspective:** The way something is perceived, which can change drastically depending on the angle of observation (e.g., viewing Odori Park from the TV tower vs. ground level). ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Photography's impact:** Forces the photographer to consider how visual images are conveyed to the public and how perspective shifts perception. - **Self-observation:** The act of photographing led Yosierimaru to observe his own sense of self, which he "did not really pay attention to in the past." - **Engagement:** Photography required him to cross streets and initiate conversations with strangers to capture their parts. ## Named Entities - **US Consulate General Sapporo:** American diplomatic office in Sapporo. - **US Department of State:** The overarching governmental body. - **Sapporo:** Location of the US Consulate General. - **Odori Park:** Specific location used as an example of differing viewpoints. - **New York City:** Location where Yosierimaru traveled to study photography. - **Susan Sontag:** American female essayist, cited for her work *"On Photography."* ## Numbers & Data - Number of people who enjoy photography in the audience (estimated by speaker): **~10**. - Time spent studying photography in New York: **about two weeks** into summer. ## Examples & Cases - **The Odori Park example:** Seeing Odori Park from the top of the TV tower versus from the ground yields completely different views. - **The New York photos:** Included one photo that was originally taken upside down to demonstrate the difference of perspective from a single scene. - **The Low East Side photo:** Initially did not ask a woman for a picture, but after crossing the street and asking, she paused munching and posed with "strong confidence." - **Lukes's story parallel:** (Implied parallel from Example 1 context, though not explicitly stated here, the structure follows the narrative arc of unexpected discovery). *Self-correction: No need to include external examples.* ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Foldable camera:** The type of camera Yosierimaru used when he started. - **Social media:** Technology area relevant to his early work involvement. ## References Cited - *On Photography* (Essay by Susan Sontag). ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - The contrast between relying on expected vocational paths versus following a passion that blooms unexpectedly through professional work. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - The audience may judge the photography's quality by asking if it is a "great photo or not," but the point was not the aesthetic quality. ## Methodology - **Observation:** Observing the world through the viewfinder of a camera to capture specific views and subjects. - **Interviewing/Interaction:** Engaging with strangers on the street to take their parts. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - The workplace is a place where one can find unknown strengths and interests, which might be uncovered when one is searching and asking oneself questions. - A new chance or interest can lead to an entirely "new world." - The power of imagination remains paramount in this process. ## Implications & Consequences - Career paths are likely to be longer and more complex than academic training; the professional environment can be an incubator for personal discovery. ## Verbatim Moments - *"My talk today is not exactly about my work or job itself nor I'm not going to talk about eyebrow niching you know complicated you know foreign policy here rather I'm going to talk about my passion and interest photography"* - *"it's probably less common that your responsibility becomes your personal interest."* - *"I will see completely different views, right?"* - *"And I'm not asking you if this is great photo or not or bad photo or not."* - *"it was the original angle of this photo when I took it."* - *"Shoot photos often leads me to communicate with those who I don't know on the street which I usually feel uncomfortable to do but I do it anyway because I want to take their parts"* - *"Your career will be much longer than you you have spent at schools."* - *"rather something new can take you to the new world and remember it will always be on your imagination."*