The bi-ennial Review Santa Fe juried by LACMA Department of Photography curator Charlotte Cotton recently wrapped up, and we've been excitedly glimpsing through the portfolios of The Review Santa Fe 100, which names the top hundred nominees of the review. Many of the names are familiar to us, with Hot Shot! and JBP artist Brad Moore and Hot Shot! John Mann making the list, as well as contenders Katrina d'Autremont, Susan Worsham and Lacey Terrell featuring accolade-worthy work.

The 2009 Santa Fe Prize of $5,000, an online exhibition, and participation in the Review went to Hiroyo Kaneko for her series Sentimental Education, a collection of intimate images of her multi-generational family bathing together.

She writes,

Bathing in hot tubs is one of the most ordinary daily rituals in Japan. Because our modern society is highly competitive and reserved, we tend to be uptight. However, once soaked in hot water, we emerge relaxed, revitalized, and unspoken emotions with others and nature.

We bathe with family, friends, strangers and sometimes with the opposite sex showing subtle impressions which waver between vulnerability and flexibility, openness and hesitancy, and intimacy and loneliness. I focus on these impressions as I believe that they represent a fundamental form of humanity.

Kaneko's work offers a consistent quietude in the rituals of daily life in Japan. The baths portrayed are sensual and private, revealing without being invasive. In another series, Picnics which also made The Review Santa Fe 100, Kaneko offers a similarly calming portrayal of controlled community as friends and families gather under blossoming cherry trees in the park. Both series offer an unobtrusive glance into the private moments of families and friends, inviting the viewer in with an uncommon openness.

See additional work by Hiroyo Kaneko on her website and read about one photographer's experience at Review Santa Fe on Emily Shur's blog.