It’s been 3 months now since I’ve been home, and I’ve started wondering about some things. Even though I’m full on taking care of the distribution of my ODO YAKUZA TOKYO book and images and having great fun doing it and meeting the press and other super interesting people (more on that one soon), I’m starting to feel the need to slowly get into new projects. Broaden my horizon. Deepen my photography. Read more. Learn more. My great-grandparents, even though I never knew them, are right now in my studio... Read the Rest →
So we made it. A tremendous collaborative effort led by super talented Diego Orlando, we created, printed and published our second book over at BURN Magazine, and we named it “BURN.02″. Almost two hundred pages of pure blood, sweat, tears & pride… with much original and commissioned work, never seen elsewhere. I’m tremendously proud of the stunning work in there, and the fact that David Alan Harvey was able to pull it off yet again. And again, also this book is literally flying out the door… We printed a limited... Read the Rest →
So here are the first details of the book ODO YAKUZA TOKYO to see the light of day. I promised some insight into how I went about all this, and here it is. Although the finished product will look “easier” than the magazine layout, actually a lot more work went into this one… Thinking about creating a good “package” was crucial. That package meaning everything from images to paper to size to aspect ratio to typography, binding, number of pages, all had to match up perfectly. To get started,... Read the Rest →
This is Taka-san in the mirror creating calligraphy for the ODO YAKUZA TOKYO book (more info on the book soon). He is our fixer for the entire Yakuza project, and over the years has become a dear friend. His work will be featured as chapter pages in the book. There will be 12 works in total. He’s not a professional artist, but his calligraphy has a very strong personality speaking through it. It’s a very emotional and exhausting process for him to put his sentiments about the Yakuza story into... Read the Rest →
Recently, the incredibly friendly and professional people at GEO Epoche magazine in Germany contacted me to supply images for their new issue about the history of organized crime throughout the world. Specifically, they wanted to use my images to complement their 18 page chapter about the history of the Yakuza in Japan from 1945 to 2010… of course I gladly obliged. This special issue #48 hits the stands today April 13, 2011. The editors at GEO Epoche are an absolute joy to work with. Super professional, an incredible eye to... Read the Rest →
In Tokyo now photographing cherry blossoms… For some reason, the past 3 years, somehow, in my ever infinite wisdom, I’ve always managed to miss this huge event. But not this year. This is going to be the closing image of what I think is the first major step in the Yakuza project: the photo book “ODO YAKUZA TOKYO”. Why cherry blossoms? Well, that’s another one of the many enigmas surrounding the Yakuza: “ODO” or 桜道, is literally translated as “the way of the cherry blossom”, and is the credo of... Read the Rest →
On the last night, Soichiro calls us to meet. He tells us some guys are going out, and that they are OK with us tagging along. On the way over, he explains to me that the club his friend owns, has a slight twist… Instead of a guest giving dollar bills to a dancer during a show, it works the other way around: the dancer chooses to collect dollar bills from a guest she chooses. — In this club, guests pay a fixed amount for a table and a fixed... Read the Rest →
Hey all, I though this one would be fun… this is my actual setup for shooting 893-Yakuza in Tokyo… super super lightweight & urban. Almost all items here are obviously weather specific and location specific: in November-December it’s cold and rainy in Tokyo. I’m NO tech person, but here’s the list: a pack of paper hankerchiefs, a lens cloth any random palstic bag a woolen cap, a super lightweight raincoat a “pocket communicator”: crucial for situations when you don’t speak the local language and need help my passport and credit... Read the Rest →
So I’ve started working on the second issue of 893 Magazine (more about the first issue here). A bit of a delay compared to what I had hoped, but some (good) unexpected things did come up that warranted this… Not in the least winning the Blurb Photography Book Now prize for Editorial… and some other ultra mega cool things that I’ll hopefully be able to tell about very soon. But I’ve started. No turning back. And no matter how excited I am to share new stories and images, the beginning... Read the Rest →
I thought this was worth a mention: for an interview about my 893-Yakuza project, which will appear in the forthcoming January issue of Fotografie, a Dutch photography magazine, The Editor-in-Chief Diana Bokje (@dianabokje) does something special… not only does she print an interview which captures our various conversations very well, but she also reproduces 5 complete spreads directly out of 893 Magazine Issue#1, including original layout and texts. Simply amazing that someone not only recognizes but also acts upon the the link between images, layout, typography and writing in the... Read the Rest →
Members of other families arriving at the funeral of Miyamoto-san (one of the family bosses) to pay their respects. Miyamoto-san died in february 2010, as a result of a stroke.
So we made it. A tremendous collaborative effort between David Alan Harvey, Diego Orlando, Anna-Maria Barry-Jester, all the photographers featured, and yours truly. We created, printed and published our first book over at BURN Magazine, and we named our baby “BURN.01″. Three hundred pages of pure blood, sweat, tears & pride… I’m tremendously proud of the stunning work by all the photographers in there, and the fact that we were able to pull it off. The book is literally flying out the door… We printed a first edition of a... Read the Rest →
This is Soichiro driving me through the streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo, in his third generation 1989 Nissan Skyline GT-R. It’s all white and retro as hell and yes, even though I’m not a car freak, I must admit it’s very cool. I like retro. Click on the image to see a short video of me trying to capture the moment. I never even knew he bought the car, and on the last night that I was there two weeks ago, while my brother and I were walking in Kabukicho debriefing... Read the Rest →
A few months ago, I entered Blurb Photography Book Now without any expectations… And suddenly, 2 weeks ago, I got a call from Eileen from Blurb. At that time I was in Japan for the YAKUZA project, right in the middle of photographing a covert training camp for young recruits. When I explained my potentially slightly precarious situation to her, she understood why I wasn’t able to jump up and scream “Yeah!”…. …but we had a great whispery conversation after that :-) Needless to say, I feel incredibly honored to... Read the Rest →
In February of this year, I got a call from Soichiro for an emergency. One of the most important family bosses, Miyamoto-san, had suffered a fatal stroke. His death was imminent. I pretty much dropped everything, and jumped on the plane to Tokyo. Even though he had kept very much to himself and always remained camera-shy, I had observed, gotten to know, and photographed the man for over 12 months; to see him lying there in that hospital bed, in a coma with no chance of recovery, felt very… human.... Read the Rest →
I thought I’d share three contact sheets. A “succesful” one, a “nope, I’ve not quite got it yet” one, and a sudden “hmm maybe there’s a new angle somewhere in here” one. (the difference in color between individual images is due to the fact that I only post process images that pass “first edit”) Tweet
Hey. Once in a while I should write about some tech stuff… and what other topic than the one that us visual artists care most about: our archives… Many articles on the web about this, but I’ve always felt that they assume incorrect things. Obviously I don’t want to go as far as being safe for Extinction Events, or being able to administer my archive on my 1987 Nokia phone… let’s say that I stay within certain limits of reason/feasibility, given the fact that I’m a one-man operation. I guess... Read the Rest →
A long overnight flight home is always a good time for introspection…. (especially in a window seat at the emergency exit, with a full moon outside :-) I feel blessed being able to do the things I am doing… blessed for the health of my family… and blessed that, even though we are literally scattered throughout the world, once every so often, we suddenly appear to be together in one geographical place – simply enjoying being. -anton Tweet
This time round has been extraordinarily difficult in Tokyo. It has been my longest trip to date (a full month), yet a slew of practical things and unforeseen circumstances have made me go home without a single usable image… Yes looking at it this way it seems frustrating… But, oddly enough, in hindsight, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be… concentrating on the stuff that comes after shooting the images, proved to be very fruitful. Oh, and of course this very same situation gave me time... Read the Rest →
I wonder how “wide” a photographer should be playing these days. It seems obvious to me that the time has passed that a photographer is merely required to make a good image. Input has expanded from photography to video, internet, graphic design, writing,… Output has grown from just “a book” to a smart mix of different things that make up a whole experience (book, magazine, video, multimedia, website, gallery, exhibition, …) … and all of it seems to be crucially important. To be able to “widen your output” as a... Read the Rest →
