Saori

• Prize
• Photographer
  Taro Karibe, Japan

Senji Nakajima, 61 years old, has lived with 'Saori' for six years in his apartment in
Tokyo, Japan. They hang out, go shopping, sleep in the same bed. The only one thing
different from any other couple is the fact that Saori is actually a life-size 'love
doll'. Nakajima, married with two children, who lives away from home for work, first
started his life with Saori six years ago. At first, he used to imagine that the doll was
his first girl friend, and used it only for sexual purposes to fill the loneliness, but
months later, he started to believe that Saori actually has an original personality.
'She never betrays me, and isn’t only after money. I'm tired of modern rational humans.
They are heartless,' Nakajima says, 'for me, she is more than a, not just silicon rubber.'

• Awards
  2017 PDN Photo Annual (Documentary and Journalism category ) 2016 Critical Mass 2016 Top50 Ueno Hikoma Award Shortlisted 2014 Sony World Photography Awards National Award, 2nd place