Tomoyuki Shioya is obsessed with comic foregrounds, and has traveled all over the place, even outside of Japan to places like Taiwan and the United States, to take pictures with them. His collection of photos nears 3,000. At first he would take pictures with them when he happened to be at a tourist spot, but one day he saw one that was getting thrown out and asked the shop owner if he would take a picture of him in it, prompting the shop owner to say, “well if people get this much joy out of it, I’ll put it back up.” Tomoyuki decided he wanted to have more experiences like that, and started seeking out “head in the hole” photo boards to take pictures with. He always walks around with a tripod and camera, and will take pictures using the timer feature on his camera no matter how crowded the space. He tells us he has never felt embarrassed by his hobby. In time his activities caught the media’s attention, and he has now appeared on television and in events, as well as held exhibits of his pictures and written a book.
Tomoyuki tells us he wants to continue taking pictures at comic foregrounds until the day he dies. You could see his pride as an aficionado, and he even seemed pretty cool to us.

塩谷朋之さんは日本のみならず、台湾、アメリカなどで顔ハメ看板にハマり続け、その数はもうすぐ3千枚に到達する。最初は観光地にあれば撮るぐらいのものだったが、ある日捨てられていた顔ハメ看板を店主に頼んで撮らせて貰ったところ「そんなに喜ぶ人がいるなら」と店主がそれをきっかけに再度置くようになった、という経験から「こういった経験をもっと増やしたい」と次第に自分から探して撮りに行くようになったという。常に三脚とカメラを持ち歩き、どんな人ごみの中でもセルフタイマーで撮ってしまう。本人曰く、恥ずかしいと感じたことは無いという。そんな彼の活動は次第にメディアの目にもとまり、テレビやイベントの出演以外にも、本を出したり写真展も開催している。
死ぬまで顔ハメ看板にハマっていたいと語る塩谷さんからは、顔ハメ看板ニストとしての誇りさえも感じ、どこか格好良くも見えた。（2017年2月13日、26日撮影）

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English (Caption & Subtitles) Checked by Devin Vecchio.