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In addition to discharging his duties as diplomat and working to upgrade cooperation between Japan and Serbia, H.E., the Japanese Ambassador to Serbia, Tadashi Nagai, also follows and inspires cultural developments in our country. He not only finds time to perform in public on the flute, but also cultivates his personal hobby – photography. Of late, Belgraders have had an opportunity to learn about this activity of his thanks to his first individual exhibition in Belgrade and the media that covered it. The next exhibition is likely to be in Zaječar, a city in eastern Serbia…
The roots of Mr. Nagai’s love toward photography go back to his childhood. As a boy of ten, he used his father’s German-made camera to try to master photography basics. |
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Several years later, the owner of a photography shop where the Nagai family developed their negatives chose one of his photographs for a photography competition. This was not only the young photographer’s first participation in a contest, but his photo won a prize as well. Following a number of years during which he made piles of photographs between his official duties, the ambassador happened to show his works to his friend, Belgrade photographer Milutin Rajković Kaktus. Fascinated by a beautiful series of flowers the Japanese ambassador had photographed, Rajković suggested the broader public should see them, and soon an individual exhibition was organised at Belgrade’s City Hall.
Most of the snaps were taken in America and Serbia. "I take photographs wherever beautiful flowers are to be found; near the embassy building and the nearby Continental Hotel, in Košutnjak Park, Topčider Park, at the residence… In any case, it appears to me that I get the best results when I photograph spontaneously, along the way, 'unintentionally'", says Mr. Nagai in excellent Serbian.
As regards technology, it goes without saying that our collocutor works with the latest editions of cameras, but avoids subsequent intervention on the photographs, something the latest technologies allow.
In the tradition of Japanese culture and arts, flowers are one of the most frequent themes. "Flowers are beautiful in their own right, and I precisely try to capture this natural beauty. What I do is the antithesis of sorts to ikebana, which is otherwise quite famous internationally. I am attracted to live flowers, to a plant’s free growth in a natural setting, to the colours of a flower people otherwise fail to notice", notes Mr. Nagai.
Other subjects Ambassador Tadashi Nagai finds interesting as a photographer are people, especially, when they are engaged in doing something. But, as he sets out, "they could demand copyright fees for their portraits, whereas flowers are always more rewarding to photograph."
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Artistic Ambition
Asked if he were to decide to become an artist, what type of art he would make – Mr. Nagai discloses that he would have opted to become a musician. As regards his parents, they had entertained thoughts of their son becoming a painter. As a young man, Mr. Nagai took drawing and painting lessons each week and the experience was also bound to reflect on his photography work. |
| Tadashi Nagai was born in the Yamaguchi prefecture on June 12, 1943. He took a degree in social sciences from the International Christian University in Tokyo in 1968, and then studied at the Universities of Belgrade and Zagreb from 1968 to 1971. Apart from Yugoslavia, that is Serbia, in which he now serves as ambassador (his fourth term of office), he was Japanese embassy First Secretary in Australia, and embassy Counselor in Germany. He was also Japan’s Consul-General in Portland, Oregon (US). | | 
