Beyond your imagination at your workplace: Yoshie Ushimaru at TEDxHGU
[Applause] Well, I'm so nervous to talk because this video that we just showed they he talked about photography which I'm also going to talk about now. So it may be a bit nervous but I'll do my best. Um good afternoon everyone. My name is Yosierimaru. First thank you for giving me opportunity to talk at TEDex HDU today. I am very honored to share my experiences with you as a former student of HDU. Well, since this program is organized mainly organized by U HDU student, so my talk will be more like um appropriate for um young audience I would say and I hope my talk will encourage these young student um anticipate their future optimistically and positively especially after your graduation. Um, let me introduce myself a little bit here. I am currently working at the US consulate general Sapora. For those who don't know about my workplace, I'll briefly explain what it is. It's American diplomatic office located in Saporo and it's a part of US Department of State. If you don't know about what US Department of State is or does um it's it's usually translated as American is it's equivalent of Ministry of Foreign Affairs so-called gao in Japan. Um in nutshell I work with American diplomats for US government in order to promote deep understanding of American culture among people in Japan northern Japan and I am mainly responsible for reference and research youth outreach and promoting study in in the United States and with related task in my office. 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 by the way how many people here do enjoy photography could you raise your Oh, maybe 10. Listen to me. Okay. I will start my talk by explaining how I became connected to photography through my workplace which was completely beyond my expectation when I was started when I started working at my office. As I mentioned, due to the nature of my duty which involved web related work such as social media, I studied photography just about three or four years ago. Learly um my position is more likely to be affected by development of technology and social trend. When I was hired several years earlier, I've never imagined that I would start photography as a part of my work. Undoubtedly, I have never get trained. I didn't study about photography at all. I had only used this foldable camera by that time. I'm not even from artistic family or did not major in art of photography back in college. After having spent about a year or so in my position, there was internal photography training opportunity for on the employee from for for east for from East Asia which I I was also encouraged to attend. It instantly dragged me into the world of photography. I loved it. I never expected it. Not only did I learn the B basic of understanding of the road of photography or for my work and for the mission of the office. I also understood how visual image should be conveyed to public. Interacting with talented colleague from from who work for public diplomacy using the visual images from the other countries also inspired me to improve my skills and understand the photography better and I have never expected that the part of my professional duty could be also my personal interest. Many people are likely to pursue what they're really passionate about for their job and some of us might struggle to find out the job with passion not the vice versa. So it's probably less common that your responsibility becomes your personal interest. In addition to photo well photography has helped me learn about the different of perspective and society and cultures. It personally helped me develop and understand the various viewpoints and brought me into the new world. If you imagine someone who is looking through the viewfinder of a camera, you can picture how it's like things can be p per perceived differently based on how you see it across the world. For example, in Saporo, depending on whether you see the Odori Park from the top of the TV tower or from the ground, you will see completely different views, right? Um, let me share a photo with you now. Here I probably need to add something here. Uh how I ended up taking this picture like I was introduced bit earlier. Um I went to New York and pursue um to study photography about two weeks into summer and it was part of my assignment there. And this is one of the photo that I that I took in in New York City. And I'm not asking you if this is great photo or not or bad photo or not. You know, if you say this is great photo, I'll be happy. But that's not the point. In fact, this order was taken upside down. This is the original angle of this photo when I took it. you see a difference of perspective and how your sock could be um fixed based on your assumption. This photo can show you the difference of viewpoints even though it was the same scene. The more I was into photography, the more I travel to to see the different views. Maybe I travel to shoot more photos. Like Susan Sand, American female essayist stated in her um essay called on photography. Shooting 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 and also I was able to observe myself how I see the sense of the word which I did not really pay attention to in the past. Shooting photo make me engage in having an entire dialogue with myself. I also shoot this photo on lower east side in New York City this summer during assignment for photography class at the same time as the first photo that I've just shown you. At first, I did not ask this woman whether I can take a picture. Then I decided to to to cross the street and ask her if it's okay to take her photo. She stopped munching and struck a really cool pose for me. And honestly, I was really amazed how she presented herself with with strong confidence and showed to me like, hey, this is who I am. Well, the changes and experiences that I mentioned in the talk so far, it's an expected result and discoveries in good way for me. And importantly they started at my work at my workplace. My experience of encountering photography is just an example. A similar thing could happen to you any one of you in the years after you graduate from university. Your career will be much longer than you you have ex you have spent at schools. The workplace is a place you work but at the same time you can find your strengths, your weaknesses, your skills and your interests. It could be anything. It could be any chances might open the door and leaves you if you keep searching for and asking yourself what it is. It's not something you should be worried about or scared of because you have never experienced it. Rather something new can take you to the new world and remember it will always be on your imagination. Thank you. [Applause] [Applause]