So here is the big news… my first YAKUZA solo exhibit has just been confirmed for spring 2013.

And it’s one hell of a unique location… the former Winterslag coal mine now-converted-to-cool-cultural-centre C-mine… A long time ago, this was also the coal mine my late grandfather and godfather (not Antoine, but Bert) worked in.

I now have exactly 11 months to prepare. It seems like a long time, but in reality it’s not…. I’ll be drawing concepts, making scale models, test prints, paper types, and sketching like hell. And the edit and sequencing of course will be crucial… and the production of the artwork itself will take several months… not to mention producing the installation itself.

I think I’ve got some cool things in mind as to how I’d like to approach this, and the next conversations with C-mine will determine the feasibility of what’s inside my head. They loved the initial concept, so hopefully it’ll work out the way I’m envisioning it.

I’ll be talking about every step of the way right here, building the concept online, and letting it grow from idea to sketch to model to reality… a careful deliberate journey, and hopefully mucho fun!

I just visited the location, and I’ve got a whopping 450 m2 (about 1,500 sq ft) at my disposal.

really excited…

a

I was recently asked to join a collective exhibit of former students at the photography academy of my home town. I was honored of course, but as I couldn’t show work from the Yakuza project (someone else has got dibs on that biggie – I’ll reveal very very soon :) I opted for an edit of images from my Mexico work in 2008.

Six images from a chapter titled “I was a Dog”, part of Dislocate, the broader story in which I try to come to terms with my feelings of being uprooted.

The hardest part for me is always how to visualize the reality of the printed image in a given exhibit space, and depending on that, to try and make the best possible choices: which image edit, which size, to make an accompanying edition or not, and how to present the images. A good way for me to help visualize is that I not only make a simple sketch of the space and add the work into it, but that I also add silhouettes of people at the correct relative sizes. This never fails to amaze me, and always proves to be very helpful. Bigger is most definitely not always better.

For this exhibit, I had available 3 large panels of 2,5x3m (8x10ft) each, white, both sides usable.

"I was a Dog" – setup – front

"I was a Dog" – setup – back

As you can see by the relative size to the silhouettes and the panels, in this case, the prints should be quite large, 44″ high by almost 70″ wide.

If I would’ve printed a test image at this size without having made the sketch first, I would’ve most certainly opted for much smaller prints, because, right now, drying on my table at home, they seem way too large:

Presentation-wise, I’m going for a “bare bones” approach, hanging the prints with two steel clamps directly on the paper, without any framing or glass or filter at all. Light prints, heavy content. I hope it’ll work out.

How on earth I’m going to transport these beasts to the venue next week is a mystery to me.

And I’ve beent told that any exhibit is prone to last minute changes because of many unforeseen/practical circumstances… e.g. what if there are only two panels available instead of three, or they cannot be setup side by side…

So I might have to adapt on the spot.

Makes it all the more exciting me says. Fingers crossed.

Cheers,

anton

More exhibit info on the website of the Academy of Fine Arts of Hasselt (in Dutch).

Heavens – Auschwitz grid – CONCEPT

Hey. As promised, and as a follow-up of my grandfather’s story, here goes the original concept of Heavens. In a next post, I’ll talk about the realities that set in during and after my first journey to Oświęcim, Poland, to the Auschwitz concentration camps, and how it changed me.

The original concept

Heavens was conceived as a book+installation project, in which I personally try to make sense of the Holocaust during the second World War. I attempt to understand and show my feelings about and vision on the massive suffering that has happened… and hopefully, in what I create, I can in a tiny way help to never forget.

I intend to visit every known Nazi camp and sub camp (following the list published by the German Justice Department – Bundesministerium der Justiz – in 1967) and make an image of the blue sky exactly above each location. A blue sky, as in ‘that heaven above’, and nothing else. A clear view on each heaven, sober and blue, yet burdened with holding the memory of the ones who suffered below.

Standing on the very same places as the victims, and looking up at the very same sky that they must have seen, it is my belief that their souls went to that heaven in that place. And for that reason, I feel those pieces of heaven should belong to them. With this work, I wish to touch the concept of heaven and how it can exist, knowing that something clamant as the Holocaust has happened.

At the same time, as a viewer, you can never really know if I actually went to these locations, because there’s nothing physical in the images to prove that they were made in those places. Only via a reference number connected to each image, and a separate list, you can find the location of that image. This in reference to the difficulty – still now – of historians reconstructing the lists of people who died, and where.

The truth of these images lies in part in the faith the viewer must have in who I am, that he/she knows I actually have done this. Just, and only because I say I did. That truth is my word that this happened, yet at the same time is no direct physical proof… again a parallel with history, as so many camps were destroyed to cover up their existence.

Because what am I, if I don’t have my word?

The list contains 1634 camps, located all over Europe (look here for an example of a map to sense the magnitude), the overwhelming majority of which have been destroyed and don’t exist anymore. I will attempt to document each heaven and publish a book with 1634 pages and 1634 blue images. An edition of 1634 copies. 1634 heavens.

This book, containing only blue skies and a reference list, will appear too senseless, too abstract and too large and too heavy and too much to hold and comprehend… But that’s exactly my point: The Holocaust is too much to hold, is too much to comprehend.

It is too much.

I want to make this book because I’ve always wished there existed already such a book, because I’ve always wanted to buy such a book and give it a place between all the other books in my room, as a reminder, to carry it along with me in my life, as a weight that we maybe, maybe, all should be carrying on our shoulders.

Time to think

I know the research will be immense to locate every location exactly (it already was when I tested going to all 48 camps linked to Auschwitz), and setting myself the maybe too narrow sliver that the sky has to be blue is not making my life any easier either…. And the installation that will surround the book, well… that is even another story.

And the part of how on earth to fund this project, which will be massively expensive, and can I justify this cost in the name of an art installation? Would that money not be better spent elsewhere?

What are your thoughts? I realize that I am blowing a conceptual bubble that is very very thin… reducing an incredibly massive and the “heaviest” of topics to its barest minimum and hopefully its essence… but I’m doing it purposely, as it is my vision on this…. and at the same time I can’t help but thinking: isn’t reducing to the maximum actually the only possible way? And isn’t the only goal that I have – being that I contribute in some way to the continuing awareness and prevention of  the Holocaust from being forgotten by looking at it in a way that (I hope) is different – justification enough to go for it?

Heavens – book cover – CONCEPT

That evening, I set out to drive 1.100 kilometres to photograph forty-eight blue skies. I was to be a first grand field test for Heavens.

I’ve been told that a good visual story is one that leaves sufficient “blanks” so the viewer can fill in and latch on… Not leave too little to the imagination, but also not leave too much; try to make it just right.

In this case, wanting to photograph 1,634 abstract blue skies seemed to be a little over the top: the idea is actually so abstract that it simply leaves everything to the imagination. Even photography itself. I’d be demanding a lot from the viewer. The work becomes a very, very delicate bubble in support of the story, even if it was quite deliberately done that way…

But might it be just too thin? Will it hold? The heaviest of stories paired with the simplest of photographs?

It seems like I might be venturing off into installation territory for this one. Not a bad thing per sé, not bad at all… but quite a break from my previous work, I must confess.

Reducing to the essence… Man, I don’t think I’ve ever reduced anything to this extent.

That’s the thought process I’m struggling with now: shaping Heavens into something possible. Because Heavens is me adding my little tiny drop, however small, to never forgetting the Holocaust. Because I believe we should not forget. And I’m scared that we might be. And if an installation turns out to be the best vehicle to bring this message across, well, then…

—

Hmmm… I just realize that the above might sound overly cryptic to everyone – maybe even to me. I guess I should describe the concept behind Heavens pretty soon. And show a photograph too.

First on my to do list. Promise.

But now, sun’s setting, spring’s started, evening’s beautiful. Today’s given, tomorrow’s never promised. Enjoy the now.

a

Of course I ended up talking about a million other things than what I had planned for, and could not cover all I wanted to say. A tiny part of me feels I missed a chance there, but the biggest part of me is happy that it went well, that I could hold a creative audience’s attention, and that the one point I did manage to make, seemed to come across.

I guess the video of this talk will be online soon, and then I’ll add it here for you to see…. Here is the link to the talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y4GCM60Vak and, as a comparison, I thought it might be interesting to share the original intended talk I wrote and practised but was not able to fully “transmit” to the audience, so to speak.

Not that it is that different from what I intended, but it’s great fun to see them side by side. In part of course because time ran out much quicker than I imagined – I gotta take that one into account next time, and in part because I forgot a million things standing up there being nervous on stage with nothing but a mic on me. Funny to analyze your own memory in this way, what you remember, what you forget…

So, without further ado, this is the integral text of what is was planning to say…

[TEDx talk, Feb 4, 2012]

it’s 3.30 am.

I’m sitting in the car next so Souichirou, my contact within. I have permission to photograph, and it’s my first time on the road with them. He’s driving the car with his boss in the back seat, who’s asleep. We’re on our way to Niigata prison, where two family members are going to be released that morning. Twenty cars driving to welcome their brohers back.

It’s almost a 4 hour drive from Tokyo, and along the way Souichirou is explaining to me the finer points of yubitsume, or finger shortening. “you cut off one digit of your little finger yourself,” he says “to lend power to the statement you want to make. Most often that statement is an apology. Then, on a white napkin, you offer that finger piece to your boss, begging him to accept it, and your apology with it.” I find myself nervously checking if he’s missing any digits himself.

He continues “if you fuck up, you will have to apologize.” Somehow, looking in his eye, at his hands, I have *no* intention of doubting that.

Turning around towards boss Nitto-san in the back seat, who in the meantime has woken up, I lift my camera to my eye to make an image. But he’s looking at me so menacingly, that I simply do not dare. I literally start putting my camera back down. Souichirou, in the driver’s seat, in the meantime, is telling me, not being able to speak English, “picture OK, picture OK”, making it clear that i should not be afraid.

I lift the camera up again but I’m so nervous that I accidentally press the shutter release button before I can compose the image.

—

That was my first day in the field with the Yakuza, the largest organized crime syndicate in the world.

For two years I photographed them. And yes, I had to learn to walk on eggshells. All the time.

To be honest, I have no idea how I pulled it off. It’s the single most asked question by friends and strangers alike when they see my book or my images or hear my stories: “how the hell did you pull that off?”

how did you get in? how did you manage to independently publish a book and a magazine? did you design it yourself? how did you attract so much press attention and publications worldwide? how did you pay for all this? there must be some “key” to it, no? do you even speak Japanese?

No, I don’t. And no, I didn’t know how I had done it. And I got asked these questions so often, that I started to become curious myself, started to think back and see if there was a pattern of sorts. a secret. a key. I mean, I must be doing *something* right. Right?

And I sure would like to know what that is, so I can replicate that for future projects….

It took a long time to think, to finally see it. And I think I have the key now, I think I do. Well I could be wrong of course, as I am wrong about many things, but at least I can say that my theory has been proven right *once*…

—

So after the friendly golf tournament between two clans, mainly a cover to discuss business on various levels, the family members all go into the bath house to relax. Kaicho, for all intents and purposes the day to day Godfather, invites me in. Completely naked with a towel in one hand constantly wiping off the steam of the lens of the camera in my other hand, I enter the bath area. a dozen members are showering, bathing, relaxing. Huge tattoos, tremendous works of art, are on everyone’s backs. So there I am shooting – naked, remember; have you ever done that, it’s very weird to have your camera gear in your hand and be shooting but not to be wearing anything. Makes you, uhmmm, in a way, quite conscious of your own body. So there I am shooting, wiping, shooting, and one of the family members behind me starts to laugh. Joined by another. and another. After a few minutes everyone’s smiling and laughing and commenting on something that I do not understand…

And then Kaicho walks up to me and says with a big smile, pointing to the really tiny tattoo of a sun on my back which i had done years before, “nice little baby tattoo”… only to burst into even more laughter.

—

Looking back I see that I have had an extraordinary amount of luck during this project. Too much luck actually. The kind of luck you can’t prepare for. Like the bath house story I just told you… as funny as it may seem, things like this happening were so crucial to build up trust, break barriers so to speak, and ultimately, go deeper.

And the more I though about it, the more it became clear to me that the concept of “preparing for a project” had to be redefined for me. It had to be way much broader than what we would think.

If I look back on Yakuza, the key elements that made me “be prepared” so to speak, were long and far apart:

• my parents were expats, as kids we got exposed to foreign cultures right from the start
• i played golf as a teenager, and again around 30
  
• I went to university to study political philosophy, and witnessed the birth/explosion of the Internet
• I have a little sun tattoo on my back
  
• my first job was as a graphic designer at a printer
• my brother Malik moved to Tokyo, Japan about a decade ago
  
• my second job was as a web designer at an ad agency
• in 2001 i started my own company with friend and kindred spirit Luc, and worked hard for 7 years to create a cool independent team of professionals
  
• in 2008 I met Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey, who became my mentor

Retroactively, I call these “key elements that make me be prepared”, because each one of these elements can be linked to a crucial moment in the project. Like my little tattoo and the bath house.

Or my brother being able to lead the negotiations. Or my graphic design years translating into designing book dummies. or the mentorship of David Alan Harvey teaching me the two thumbs up approach. Or the web design company that I run with my friend Luc, that gave me room to pursue this project in the first place. So many things.

But it’s of course obvious that you cannot call these elements “preparation”, simply because, well, this kind of thing happens independently of any project. This is not “preparation”, this is your entire life.

But what if that were the key? What if, your life were your only true asset that can adequately prepare you for your projects?

I mean… this gives a whole new meaning to “it’s all about the journey, not about the destination”

—

In august of 2010,… –> Tell the story of the covert training camps, secret location, sleep in the room with the young recruits and talk about the immense duality that is Yakuza.

—

What would the images of the training camp mean to me if I had not experienced them first hand? Let’s be honest: if I had to choose between experiencing the training camp, or simply having the pictures, I think the former will always win, hands down.

CONCLUSION

What I actually want to say is: after so many people asked how I could pull it off, and after looking back and thinking about it for a long time,

I found that the person you are and the support you have around you IS the preparation for any project to come, IS the preparation you need for whatever you want to do….

The surprisingly simple search to find and identify your “elements”, your strengths *and* your weaknesses, and worship them as the most important thing in your life, knowing they will help you. And trust me, if you let them, they will.

All the rest is practical stuff. (note to self: the practical stuff, at all times, needs to be done relentlessly at 100% with zero margin for error)

In life, it’s all about the journey. I guess we all know that, I know that, and yet at the same time I feel it’s the hardest thing in the world to do, to learn to focus on the journey and just enjoy the ride.

But I keep on trying, and sometimes it works out.

thanks for listening.

On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.

Today is also the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

Below the poem Todesfuge (Death Fugue) by Paul Celan. A photographer and good friend of mine, Koen, told me about this poem while we were discussing Heavens… I had never heard of it… and I thought it fitting for this day today.

—

Paul Celan – Todesfuge

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends
wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts
wir trinken und trinken
wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne er pfeift seine Rüden herbei
er pfeift seine Juden hervor läßt schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde
er befiehlt uns spielt auf nun zum Tanz

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich morgens und mittags wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete
Dein aschenes Haar Sulamith wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng

Er ruft stecht tiefer ins Erdreich ihr einen ihr andern singet und spielt
er greift nach dem Eisen im Gurt er schwingts seine Augen sind blau
stecht tiefer die Spaten ihr einen ihr andern spielt weiter zum Tanz auf

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags und morgens wir trinken dich abends
wir trinken und trinken
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith er spielt mit den Schlangen
Er ruft spielt süßer den Tod der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
er ruft streicht dunkler die Geigen dann steigt ihr als Rauch in die Luft
dann habt ihr ein Grab in den Wolken da liegt man nicht eng

Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts
wir trinken dich mittags der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
wir trinken dich abends und morgens wir trinken und trinken
der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau
er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau
ein Mann wohnt im Haus dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er hetzt seine Rüden auf uns er schenkt uns ein Grab in der Luft
er spielt mit den Schlangen und träumet der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland

dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Sulamith

—

Paul Celan – Death Fugue

Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundown
we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night
we drink and we drink it
we dig a grave in the breezes there one lies unconfined
A man lives in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when dusk falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are flashing he whistles his pack out
he whistles his Jews out in earth has them dig for a grave
he commands us strike up for the dance

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink in the morning at noon we drink you at sundown
we drink and we drink you
A man lives in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when dusk falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith we dig a grave in the breezes there one lies unconfined.

He calls out jab deeper into the earth you lot you others sing now and play
he grabs at the iron in his belt he waves it his eyes are blue
jab deeper you lot with your spades you others play on for the dance

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at noon in the morning we drink you at sundown
we drink you and we drink you
a man lives in the house your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith he plays with the serpents

He calls out more sweetly play death death is a master from Germany
he calls out more darkly now stroke your strings then as smoke you will rise into air
then a grave you will have in the clouds there one lies unconfined

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at noon death is a master from Germany
we drink you at sundown and in the morning we drink and we drink you
death is a master from Germany his eyes are blue
he strikes you with leaden bullets his aim is true
a man lives in the house your golden hair Margarete
he sets his pack on to us he grants us a grave in the air
he plays with the serpents and daydreams death is a master from Germany

your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith

(translation by Michael Hamburger)

Gaston is the reason that I ‘m starting my next long term project: Heavens.

Heavens will become a personal journey, me trying to make sense of something unimaginable. Something unspeakable. Something that took place in Europe 60 years ago, before I was born.

I feel the need to personally understand and place the huge and unimaginable injustice done to so many millions during the years of the Holocaust. A darkest page in human history, yet a page never to be forgotten.

—

It all started with my grandfather during WWII, when he was a geography student at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.

One night, when Gaston was home asleep, Nazi soldiers raided the house. In the middle of the night they banged the door and forced their way in. His mother woke up from the noise and pushed him out of bed and out the bedroom window onto the flat roof. The soldiers were on a mission to round up and deport all university students who were member of a certain fraternity, with members active in the resistance.

It didn’t take long before the soldiers entered Gaston’s bedroom. Though it appeared as if the bed was unslept in, one of the soldiers felt the warm mattress and deducted that he must be hiding somewhere in the immediate surroundings. Outside in the meantime, Gaston had been unable to find a hiding place on the flat roof, the only thing in the nearby being a glass dome shaped window in the roof, behind which he desperately tried to tuck himself away as much as he could. One of the young German soldiers, about the same age as him, opened the bedroom window and climbed out onto the roof.

It was impossible not to spot my grandfather.

And indeed he did. My grandfather peering through the glass, acutely aware that he could as well just be standing up and in plain sight, and the German soldier looking straight back at him. Then It happens. They lock eyes for an instant. Both men in their late teens. Both men black hair. Both men look at each other for an eternity, in which they seem to realize something more, something bigger than that wretched war.

The soldier steps back inside saying “Nein, er ist hier nicht.”… the cue for my grandfather to make a run for it. Over different roofs, several houses down the road where he jumps off into a courtyard.

Unfortunately Gaston jumps straight into a dog pen, waking up the dog who starts to bark loudly. It’s about 2am now. Gaston frantically tries to keep the dog quiet, eventually succeeds, and stays in the pen literally for several hours, waiting. Hours later, he climbs out of the pen. As he walks back to his house, at the end of the street around the corner, he suddenly gets pulled into a house by one of his neighbors… a woman suspected to be collaborating with Nazi Germany. She pulls him into her house, whispering “Antoine! Hide here, wait, they’re still staking out your house waiting for you to return…”.

—

My grandfather’s life got saved twice that night. And by two of the most unlikely people to do so.

A tiny story of hope in what were the darkest of days for millions.

(From that moment onwards, everywhere my grandfather went, he was always shown a secret escape route or hiding place… everyone in town and at the university knew they were after him, and all worked together to keep him safe. In the end, he survived the war not being deported.)

—

I’ll be going into detail as to what I intend to do and how I intend to do it, and seek your wisest advice… I’m full on in the research phase now… the photography, the concept, the reason for the title, what I hope to achieve, my fears and aspirations, my sadness, my journey, hopefully my determination to be able to finish this project as i envision it, as that is what I fear the most: emotionally, this might just actually weigh too much upon my shoulders…

I have no answers. But maybe, just maybe, I could provoke good thought.

Lest we never forget.

a

For years now I’ve used the concept of a light table for my site. And for me, it stood the test of time. My content was simplified to the max, just one single timeline, and in one glance you could see what was going on with me and my work at any given moment. It even simplified the way I would work in the field: “create the story, Anton, don’t think about else”.

But lately I’ve been struggling to fit in the different types of things that I do within a story, and at the same time the different ways that I’d like to communicate within a story. The site had just one timeline, and therefore just one possibility. I could not hold any attention to things that had to remain out there longer than being the most recent post, and there was no visual difference between “am important post” and “a little b-roll image”.

I ended up posting farther and farther between, always trying to make a new post at least as important as the previous one…. but that obviously quickly became something of an impossible situation.

Now…  A New Year, new resolutions, and also time to change this… sorry about the tech talk below, but I need to get this off my chest.

What’s the plan?

My main goal is to keep my images on my own server, and to have multiple “streams”:

• the core of it all is, and always will be, the blog, but now the categories and tags will be put to use in a better way
• I’ll create room for “works/products” that are relatively time-independent, and displayed in a different way
• I’ll create room for “project overviews”, even more time-independent, and displayed in yet another way
• I need the possibility to draw attention to things (whatever they are) in a separated-from-the-blog-timeline kind of way.
• A final “nice to have” is a separate tumblr like stream of inspiration images and little things, that are in a timeline stream, but separate from all the rest

That’s all i wish for… plus the usual good SEO, integration of social media (fb, twitter, etc) and a shopping cart.

I chose to shop around for the best possible premium theme I could find with a good mix of typography and room for images (the so called “photography themes”, while great for images, sadly often neglect the text/typography part). No need to reinvent the wheel… let me focus on the content instead. There are so many amazing themes out there that are a perfect base to start from. I ended up purchasing the Echo theme by Onioneye over on themeforest. Nice and light and I suspect perfectly suited for my needs.

The structure

This is the structure for my way of working, which I hope will stand the test of time as well: each project has its own overview page, its own blog category (with posts on a timeline, a blog like we all know), and also its own product category (also with posts, but styled differently, as “products”). Sounds pretty obvious now that I read it, but it took me a while to figure out :-/

antonkusters.com/projectx/
will be the landing page for a project (like YAKUZA), where I describe the project in general terms, show a few images, and link to the following two things: the projectx-category in the blog section, and the projectx-category in the product section:

antonkusters/category/projectx/
projectx category in the blog section

antonkusters/post-about-something-going-on-in-projectx/
single blog posts will always be only %post-name% to optimize SEO as much as possible (since WP 3.3 this has no more performance issues)

antonkusters/portfolio-category/projectx/
for all the work/products (tangible things, like the ODO YAKUZA TOKYO book) that are part of projectx

antonkusters/portfolio-category/product-typex/
for all the work/products (tangible things) that are categorized as a product-type (books, prints, publications, exhibits,…)

antonkusters/portfolio/productx
for a specific product (which obviously always must belong to a project)

I could have (maybe should have?) made a distinction between “pages” and “posts” by adding /blog/ for all posts. But I want blog posts and (timeless) pages to be as important as one another, thus on the same level URL wise, and SEO wise.

Phew, that’s it.

Enough with all the behind the scenes tech stuff. I guess I just needed to write this to seek your opinions, and to get it out of my head as well… Tell me, what do you think, does the above sound like a good structure to build upon? If you want to show multiple long term projects, talk about each of them along they way, and each yielding different “products” at different times?

Yes… I know… I should be concentrating on the thing the REALLY matters… creating new work. But for me, knowing that I have the structure behind my work down, gives me tremendous peace of mind to go out an do what I love.

Even if I know that above all, creating new work scares the heck out of me. Standing in front of that fresh empty new canvas, knowing that yes, NOW, I have to deliver. But that’s food for thought a next post.

Damn…. I can’t wait to get out there…. and I hope you’ll be joining me in my journeys in 2012. I sure as hell love having you around. I promise I’ll post much more often this year :o)

My best wishes for this new year, may it make your wildest dreams come true,

a

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 looking at me and telling me I’ll be fine, but that I’ve thought things through long enough now. Time to get to work.

Beirut is playing The Rip Tide.

It’s a funny state of mind I’m in… I recognize it so clearly from three years ago, when a little voice in the back of my head made me decide to go for the YAKUZA project. Just as YAKUZA was only inside my head then, right now all these new ideas are only inside my head. Some of them nothing more than a feeling; a longing to learn more about something. A deceptively small and fragile thing. A seedling.

And the hard part I know will begin right now: to try and shape those little ideas into something tangible, into hopefully that real thing, to take it out of my head and put it out there for everyone else to see and become real.

[alert]To me, the best way to actually start my new projects is simply… to tell everyone that I’m going to start them.[/alert]

So there you go. Make it public. Get it out of your head and start talking to people about it. Make those first pictures and show them. This is the moment the lingering stops. The moment my great-grandparents tell me: good, at least you’re doing something now. And it’s also the moment that the ideas that will forever remain ideas, suddenly hide and stay inside my head, while the “possible” ones come out and maybe become reality.

You know that feeling when for the very first time you talk to someone else about a new project? And while you’re talking you instantly feel that, no matter how much you thought it through, there are holes and illogical things all over the place. You feel nervous and scared and almost ashamed laying out that little seedling of an idea…. it seems like your confidence is gone all over again… you stutter.

[alert]But doing this is so necessary for me. I feel that an idea can only be really put to the test through dialogue with others.[/alert]

I need to do this with people who understand what you’re doing, yet at the same time are not too personally involved. And I need to do this repeatedly. It’s like I have to have a secret group of human touchstones to talk about different aspects an idea. Some people don’t have anything to do with photography… others are seasoned pros… mentors… and mother of course… and some who do not even know they are giving me advice in the first place. It’s all meant to happen naturally. And after a certain time, when the feedback has sufficient mass, I’ll stop being scared and slowly start to believe the project might be possible. I’ll be able to voice my idea eloquently. This is the moment when I start believing that the idea can be “possible”… From then on, considerations become more practical and real and that’s when I hope everything hopefully will be able to fit within my daily life and duties and existing projects… Like anyone, I don’t live in a bubble, however attractive that would seem.

Of course, seeking feedback from all of you here is a crucial step in this all, and something I’ll be going into over the next couple of weeks: laying out these new projects and talking about them, sharing my excitement and insecurity at the same time. You guys will be the ones to see my thinking all come together. And maybe see it fall apart too… So hold your hats…

As a teaser, here is a sampling of what’s about to come, off the top of my head. All are working titles, and I might be forgetting some, or some you might have heard of already:

YAKUZA original prints and posters
as part of the YAKUZA project

Wings & Roses & Tarts
an art gallery – collaboration

Dislocate
my personal long term photographic project, back in full force

Heavens
a long term photographic project – collaboration

A Little Glow in the Dark
a wonderful photo book collaboration with kids

Apron
a short term photographic project – collaboration

My Machine
a mid term personal photographic project

Skippas
a mid term personal photographic project

Twelve
a short term photographic project – collaboration

…
…and more will pop into my head I’m sure…

I know, it seems impossible to start all these in one go… it would be like an explosion… some projects are light and full of life, some are extremely dark and heavy and full of death…  but I’m in no rush… we’ll see what works out. One by one, slowly……. I for one am SO super excited. Looks like a photographic new year’s resolution in a way… smiling… and hoping I’ll be at least able to start the massive and incomprehensible “heavens”… that’s the one to look out for.

Bon Iver playing Perth now.

hugs,
a

Surprise! For those of you who ordered the second edition of YAKUZA, I present you with the new cover image. I hope you like it…

The inside of this second edition is the same as the sold out limited edition… but the last image, binding, chapter paper and cover are different. Read more about that here.

Exciting… In about ten days the second edition will be stitched and bound, the cover attached, and all the books will be individually shrinkwrapped, ready to be packed and shipped.

And so the distribution begins… I’m really really looking forward to it, and at the same time I’m a little scared of this first massive shipment of books I’m going to fulfill during the first week of November. Am I logistically even going to be able to handle it?

Fingers crossed.

Looking forward to the smell of books filling up my house again.

Have a great day today,

a

PS. Oh, and if you haven’t bought a book yet, now is really the time to do so… just click the green button here to your left… I need your support… I promise, you’ll not be disappointed!

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 edition of 1,500 copies in Italy at Grafiche Antiga, and at the rate things are going, we’ll be sold out pretty fast. Not bad for us tiny little team… and kudos to Diego formaking it happen.

Have a look for yourself: the first page of every essay in the book… (images © copyright the respective photographers)

It’s a true collector’s item, so please… order your copy, spread the word, and support us in our cause… BUY BURN.02 HERE…

I’ve literally received more than a thousand emails after the limited edition sold out, asking if there were plans for a second (general) edition of ODO YAKUZA TOKYO. At the time, I’ve always responded with neither “yes” or “no”, mainly because I needed a break in August to think things over… find new projects, do some research, get everything in order, rest my weary mind, take a little nap, etc…

And then came the press attention… attention and support which, without fault, has been super professional and incredibly heartwarming… GEO, GEO Epoche, The Sunday Times, El Pais, BBC, BBC Radio 4, BBC Mundo, Dagens Næringsliv, Blurb, The Japan Times, Chasseur D’Images, Rencontres d’Arles,… so many, and there’s still more to come (stay tuned!).

I’m genuinely happy and excited… And I realize all the above is giving me an opportunity to reach more people with a book than ever before, tell my story to a wider audience… participate.

So here’s the plan:
I literally just called the printer five minutes ago.
Said it felt like it was time for a second edition.

He agreed and started preparing rightaway. He guaranteed that all books will be ready to ship October 30th, 2011. Wow…. just perfect… What else could I wish for…

—

Since this is not the limited first edition, there will be significant changes in the book: no Japanese transparent paper between chapters, not numbered as part of an edition, a cover change, and a different binding. The image edit will be exactly the same as the first edition though, except for the very last image, which is unique to the limited edition… Yes, for the 500 lucky ones who have supported me in buying the limited edition two months ago, rest assured: your copy is now more valuable than ever… it is a unique object, never to reproduced. Your support has made everything possible in the first place…

The price of this second edition? Also exactly the same. I want the first edition buyers to know that they have something special, but that they did not have to pay a premium price for this. That “extra” in the first edition is my token of appreciation for the trust they gave me.

—

Back to the second edition: I want to offer a token of trust for people buying this second edition… to me, as an independent artist publishing work, it’s the thing that makes everything worthwile, that personal connection to you, buying the book…

So I’m offering the first 250 people who order a book
a signed copy, and I will add an original YAKUZA print as well.
(UPDATE: on september 12 2011, the first 250 orders were reached)

Again… thank you so much for the hundreds of supportive emails… and asking for a second edition. I heed your call.

And touch wood for me please…

And while you’re at it, buy your copy here below NOW :-)

      
If your country is not on the list, please drop me a note and I will accommodate.
If you buy more than 3 books, shipping is not automatically calculated.
I will then manually look for the best option and follow up with you personally.
Pickup is possible, but from Hasselt (Belgium) only.

ciao ciao,
anton

I never thought it would go this way. I expected to sell about half of what I printed, ever.

Instead, the book ODO YAKUZA TOKYO opened on BURN on June 17,  and now, 34 days later, the 500 copy limited edition is sold out… If you have any enquiries about this edition, just send me a direct email.

Today I’m wrapping the final book to ship. It does feel kind of sentimental.

Completely honored, and grateful to the chance I’ve been given, I now need a rest. Just a short one. One week.

I’ll be going on a little road trip with my lover, and after that, spend August at home, recharging, taking things easy, making my mind empty… and planting some seeds.

The Yakuza project is not in any way over of course, but just so you know: many more exciting things are going to be started soon…

Thank you all who bought the book, it has been a life-changing positive experience. I hope I will be granted many more of these.

Summertime…

thank you all, a

Finally…. it’s here! The book…. Over on BURN Magazine there’s a great interview by David Alan Harvey with me about the new book… and obviously you can buy it there. Please do so… it’s a beautiful object… and limited to only 500 numbered copies…

Below an excerpt from the introductory text:

In the hotel bar in Niigata, I’m only slowly starting to understand the extremely subtle social interaction that is continuously happening;
the micro-expressions on the faces, the gestures, the voices and intonations, the body language…

As the bar is being evacuated to make room for the godfather having a coffee, everything seems to be strictly organized but at the same
time seems to come naturally: strange, I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do, where to sit, when to talk or when to shut up. It’s like
I literally feel the boundaries, the implicit expectations, and I’m slowly learning when I can move forward, and when to best hold back.

Sitting at the table with a bodyguard looking straight through me, I drink my iced coffee. I’m feeling the acute sensation of walking on eggshells.

—

So yes, I feel a little like I took a step forward… printed and bound exactly like I envisioned it, a limited edition of 500 copies, soft cover, Japanese paper,… in my eyes, it has it all.

I sold 8 out of 10 copies at LOOK3 festival a few days ago, and was humbled by the amazing response. To watch someone looking through your book is something that completes the circle for me…

So go ahead, buy a copy, you will not be disappointed… and you will be supporting me to continue my work. Shipping starts on July 1st. My first task, tomorrow, is going to Japan with 10 books as a gift to the family bosses. Presented to them by me and my brother Malik with a little ceremony.

Fingers crossed.

Oh, and by the way…. today is my birthday…. some lucky coincidence.

[ NOTE: as of July 21 2011, this limited edition is sold out. You can direct any enquiries about this limited edition to me directly.
There is a second edition of this book available; for more information and to buy the second edition, look here. ]

cheers, a

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, here is the cover, front and back, folded open all the way (see the blue dotted lines for folds):

The image of a door I can barely see through, Yakuza members in a meeting and a bodyguard at the door, the mystery that surrounds them, is as always present, yet enough is revealed to be able to take a peek into their world; it felt like an image that sums up the story well.

The title, ODO YAKUZA TOKYO, hopefully speaks for itself, ODO (or 桜道 – which is translated as “the way of the cherry blossom”) being the official sign of the Yakuza family in Tokyo that I have been following for more than two years now. Also notice that the title of the book appears on the backcover. I though long and hard about this one, and in the end I believed it wouldn’t do me any damage. At the same time it’s a tribute to Japanese books, which due to the language, usually start “at the back” and make their way to the front.

Oh, and of course it’s gonna be a softcover… with flaps on the cover folded inside… so much more real, like a book…

I could never have designed the cover without first knowing the entire package; and that took a long time to figure out. Especially because I had nothing to hold in my hands to compare to, to feel, to pick up, to leaf through. It’s always so different to actually hold a book in your hands, compared to looking at a design on the screen. So I started collecting many different books that were interesting in some way or another, and I finally found a book that was almost completely a perfect package like I wanted to create: softcover, portrait (so the opened book can be as accompanying as possible for double page pictures), folded flaps, ±220 pages, a version of lay flat binding, thick paper with a personality, laced with thin tracing paper per chapter, and a size of 8.89 x 11″ (225.9 x 279.4 mm)…This was going to be it.

Double page pictures… I wanted this to be possible but I needed to be sure about the binding, so I could be confident the book could lay flat without breaking. here’s a sample pic, and it works beautifully. I’ve had this particular book for about 5 years now, and the binding still doesn’t show any signs of wear:

Once I knew that was possible, I could start to look at the double page spread as a canvas by itself, and I could start thinking about giving each individual image the whitespace (or bleed) it needed in my eyes. It turned out that all of my images coped extremely well with the double page layout, and I was very happy to see that many images even gained strength because of the depth the fold created in the middle. This was my biggest hurdle and my greatest fear, but now that I look back at it, that decision was a very good one to be made.

On to typography… I wanted to use a favorite and very old typeface Plantin, but because I used that for the logo and design of BURN Magazine, I decided not to got the same route for this book. I moved on to a digital font, with a slightly lighter reading impact on the eye for longer text: Arno by Robert Slimbach. All text in the book is set in versions of the Caption, Italic, Regular, SmText, or Italic SmText, depending on the situation.

The number of pages for a book using this binding and this aspect ratio/size, would ideally be around 200-220… so that’s what I aimed for. A total of 92 images will grace the pages of this book, and reproductions of 12 works of Japanese calligraphy by Ginryu (Taka’s artist name).

After a long search and many print tests, the final paper choice ended up between Fedrigoni’s Symbol Tatami or Périgord’s Condat Mat… at 175 or 150 gr. I went for the Tatami, which has more personality to the touch. Also, the ever so slight ivory colour perfectly matches the yellow cast which seems to be present throughout the images of the Yakuza story. And the beautiful tracing paper between every chapter, accomodating the calligraphy, hopefully give the book that “little extra”.

—

I’m genuinely happy. I feel I’m creating a book that is completely what I envision it to be. The story I want to tell in exactly the way I would love it to be told. To me, this package perfectly fits the bill: paper choice, size, aspect ratio, binding, top quality printing… it all adds up and the different parts seem to complement each other nicely.

Mind you, this all adds up to quite a printing bill…. One which I cannot pay. But I firmly believe in this package, in the way I want to present the YAKUZA story. And rather than sacrificing quality to accomodate limited budget, I’m going to be seeking support from you guys so I can pull this one off…. details on this, and on my thoughts on distribution, very very soon… please stay tuned. I’m gonna need all of you.

peace

a

I think it’s a really cool collaboration, and it adds an extra layer of authenticity to the book, especially as he has been deeply involved since the very beginning. Without him, we would have never made contact with the Yakuza in the first place. At his own personal risk, he always makes sure my brother Malik and I are safe at all times, and continuously advises us on the ever so important dos and don’ts when dealing with them. A bar owner and professional musician, he himself is not a member of any family.

a

The editors at GEO Epoche are an absolute joy to work with. Super professional, an incredible eye to detail, and strong research, they also valued my opinions and possible safety concerns and the overall context. I’ve always felt it a very sensitive issue to give control away over the context of my images, but I have never felt at any moment that they treated it lightly. I am very impressed.

Oh, and they’re also including an image of mine in their newsletter, 15 extra images in a slide show on their website to promote the story, and they’re also making mention of the upcoming ODO YAKUZA TOKYO book (more about that book very soon), and the second issue of 893 Magazine.

I simply couldn’t be happier the way this all came together. Online, offline, printed, screen, past, present, future,…. all in one big mix.

Below you can see the actual layout of the spreads in the GEO Epoche printed magazine (issue #48), and these are the links to the connected online content: GEO Epoche – issue #48, the chapter about the Yakuza and  the Yakuza slide show (both in German).

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 the particular family that I’m following. An image of cherry blossoms seems crucial to the book.

—

But first things first: yes, the book is finally coming… I’ve found a printer, I’m finishing the design, I’ve narrowed down the paper choice, and I’ve been recommended an incredible binding. More on the book coming very very soon: the design, the model, what’s in it, how I am going about publishing it, seeking support from you guys, how I’m going to try to sell it, etc….

People ask me what the difference is between the book and the magazine (893 Magazine). At first, I’d just keep saying, “well the book is like a book, and the magazine is like a magazine”, but as more and more people started giving me that blank stare, I realized that explanation didn’t quite cut it :-)

I think it’s more along the lines of this: 893 Magazine allows me to bridge the gap between the project and talking about the project.
893 Magazine effectively has given me the much needed ability, the platform to talk about my personal experiences along the way. In fact, one could compare the magazine to an abbreviated, condensed, more permanent printed version of a blog or a personal diary.

—

Contrary to the above, the book “ODO YAKUZA TOKYO” is the actual project. The images, all reproduced in the best possible way I can afford, as a perfectly sized tangible book object, a quality package that represents the first two years of photographing the Yakuza.

If the book is the story in pictures, the magazine is talking about the story in pictures. Two different things, but both equally necessary.

So why not combine into one book? For the simple reason that it is time for the book, but the rest of the Yakuza project is not over yet…. there are still many things to come after this first book, and upcoming 893 Magazine issues give me that ongoing platform to talk about this: issue #2 will talk about the process of preparing the documentary film, designing the book, sketching the exhibition, going deeper into the personal life of our fixer Taka, new images along the way, and more…

So there you have it. A sneak peek into what’s cut out for me for the rest of this year. Plus starting several new projects. Gulp. What a workload. But I’m looking at it from the bright side… I’m really, really, really lucky to be doing what I love.

Hugs to all,

anton

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 period of time, and accompanying that, they receive chips in the form of fake dollar bills. The dancers come and sit and chat at your table, introductions are made, and drinks are bought. Conversations start to take place. At a certain point, a hostess gets up and chooses a guest to accompany her on stage, to collect dollar bills from during an act. As the night progresses, these dancing acts become more explicit, but always the guest is required to lay still.

—

The conversations and shows strike me as extremely professional. Any contact between dancers and guests is courteous and respectful in a typical Japanese way. It’s even almost like the subtlety and the conversation is more important that the show…. quite an enigma, considering the setting of a night club in Kabukicho.

I soon thereafter learn that customers often return to see the same hostess girl many many times, sometimes over many years, while building up a relationship of empathy, discretion and trust, in which both parties get to know each other intimately (though not necessarily physically), talking about work, home, kids, joys and worries at home, and the like.

—

Obviously the line is a very fine one, and most probably it is often crossed… but here, now, to me, the line seems very clear… and even here, the concept “geisha”, though maybe far fetched and very different, never seems to be really far away.

a

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 card and other necessary travel/ID docs
• extra batteries
• flash
• secondary camera (set up as rangefinder)
• main camera (rangefinder) with just one lens (but a great one)
• pens & pencils, markers, little notebook
• memory cards
• audio recorder
• super dooper business cards with images of my work (extremely important in Japan)
• mini tripod
• signed David Alan Harvey bag, with custom padded inserts

Money and phone are usually not in my bag.

There are some specific realities to shooting in a metropolis like Tokyo, all of which obviously affect my setup: if anything breaks, I can usually have it fixed it within hours, or event rent or buy new equipment; that’s why I have no no need for more than one main camera/lens combination.

The bag is of course crucial: this particular bag is the lightest one around (I have to be able to carry it for a long long time), completely waterproof when closed, is low key black, has very easy inside pockets, a cross strap, and room enough for my gear sitting in padded inserts. And of course having it signed by David Alan Harvey makes me invincible :-)

If i shoot video, my setup differs suprisingly little to the above:

• add video camera + batteries (video camera uses the same lens as the main rangefinder camera)
• add shotgun mic
• add tripod, steadycam, scorpion

As you can see, I’m more of a traveller than a tech person… Obviously the reason for this all has to do with subject, location, type of project, type of photography… but I think I’ve nailed my setup pretty good this time: every element in the bag is crucial, and as far as I can tell I can’t leave anything more out of the bag to make it even lighter. I seldom use my flash, so I would be inclined to maybe let that one go first…

Any thoughts?

And as if that weren’t hard enough, today it also occured to me that for some reason it seems like I used up all my good images for the first 893 Magazine issue, and don’t have any left for this one… The law of diminishing returns truly seems to be setting in here… Yikes again! Apparently this is supposed to be absolutely normal in long term photographic projects, even up to the point that one can go months without making a single good image, so now I find myself clinging to that thought. It’s another hurdle to face. But I guess that’s just part of the editing process, I’m expecting it to eventually fall into place. (Ahem.) — I’m told there’s nothing better to get you going than putting something out there; showing that you have started. Even if it proves to be the wrong choice in the long term, at least you’ve started… at least you’ve done something… at least you’ve set yourself a bar to raise. So without further ado, I present to you the next issue cover of 893 Magazine…. or what I think it should be. I might change my mind tomorrow, in five minutes, or maybe even not at all. But at least you’ll have seen this cover, super intelligently called “893 Mag issue #2 potential cover version 1 – the stare”:

Something that’s running circles inside my head is if I would keep exactly the same format (paper size, printer, etc) as issue #1, or go for something different. Right now I’m thinking it might be cool to have a second and first issue that fit together. I’d really love to do different formats and sizes and papers and bindings and so much more, but I’m coming to realize that I’ll have to choose just one. At least for the magazine… For the actual “893-Yakuza” book, I feel i should take the “full control” route, working directly with an excellent printer, so I can also be in on the paper choice, binding, size, etc. More info on that particular subject coming this spring. — Yum. It’s nice to be looking forward. Hope it all works out. Will honestly need everyone’s support to deliver.

Have a great 2011 everyone. a

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 893-Yakuza project… which is so important… She already knows that I really appreciate this opportunity, but yet again: kudos…. Above are the spreads as they’re appearing: I’ll find out if there’s a way to order the issue online, and I’ll let you know. a

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. Tokyo, February 2010

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 the past shoot, he casually asked: “fancy a little drive?” A little drive indeed. There were traffic jams everywhere in Tokyo, so we had to cut our drive short. In the footage you can see me in the rearviewmirror, desperately trying to hold the camera still… …which obviously didn’t work.

Needless to say, I feel incredibly honored to have won in the Editorial Category, and I’m going to make the most of it to push this project forward as much as I can… Remember the “playing wide” post a while ago… Here’s a sneak preview of what I have in store: First and foremost, there’ll be an issue of 893 Magazine every 6 months as long as the project goes. That means that in roughly two months time you will be able to buy a new 893 issue… I’m still debating on whether the shape and form should be radically different than the first issue. There are pros and cons to that approach… so I guess I’ll keep it as a surprise :-)

Secondly, my brother and I recently got permission to shoot video during the project. This obviously presents a huge opportunity to add depth to this project, and makes producing a documentary feature film suddenly become a possibility. A lot of legwork will be required to pull this one off, especially because photography and video require such a different approach… but I’m working on it. Malik and I are organizing test shoots to see how it will work out, and so we have some raw material to approach production companies for help.

Thirdly, about a month ago, I entered negotiations for an encompassing 893 – Yakuza exhibition as well… I can’t disclose too much information just yet, because it’s all still in its infancy, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will work out. My contact is a great guy who is an absolute expert on Asia. In this exhibition I will create an immersive experience with images, video, sound and graphic design/typography… Stay tuned for more info on this one.

Alongside the above, I’m also producing many more things that I hope will be successful in spreading the word. Again, tight lips here for now, but announcements will follow very very soon, like, in a couple of days… — post scriptum For those who have bought the previous edition of the first issue of 893 Magazine (not available anymore), I have a special treat: as it suddenly became a limited first edition of 89 (with 3 copies for myself, so an edition of 89+3), I’ll personally sign and number and send you your copy back, if you send it to me first.

I know it’s a bit weird to do it this way, but that’s because I couldn’t dream of predicting winning Blurb PBN… I’ll number according to your wishes, on a simple “first come, first serve” basis (meaning, the book that actually arrives at my home first, by whatever means), with the first 3 numbers being reserved. email me for my home address at anton[at]antonkusters.com, and I will send you detailed instructions immediately. “Send it, make it limited” could be the catch phrase here :-)

Oh. and thank you all dearly for your support….

ever so appreciated.

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.

The greater context of him being part of a Yakuza family was not relevant to me at that point. I saw before me a dying man. I touched his hand, I talked to him about the little time we had spent together, hoping he’d hear me.

I go to visit him three days in a row. On the third night, at 2.30am, he dies. I offer the family my condolences in the only possible way I can: I look for and print all images I made of him before, and over the course of the next days, during the week long private wake, I repeatedly bring images to them.

His girlfriend and older brother are grateful, and allow me to document the traditional Buddhist rituals surrounding the funeral that is about to take place. But even then, most images I feel I shouldn’t show, they seem too intimate. I’ll think it over…. time will tell. Perhaps in the greater context of the story I’m telling they’ll find their place.

—

It was cold those days, and I was underdressed.