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

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!

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.

(the difference in color between individual images is due to the fact that I only post process images that pass “first edit”)

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 I’m writing this as much for myself as for others :-)

So what do I want to achieve? I want, once and for all, peace in my mind as to the archive of my images, videos, designs and products (magazines, books, posters, etc) (all four of which exist in both analog and/or digital form): that they are secured and controlled accessible.

I want this to be the case for past work, and “live” work that I am doing right now (because of the long term projects I’m involved in). And obviously I want to be able to add future projects.

For that, I have sketched out an archive system, both digital and analog, both online and offline, both home and somewhere else. I believe that this combination offers me the greatest flexibility in working, security for my archived work, and accessibility for others involved. As always, it is a combination of things, tailored precisely to the kind of person I am and the knowledge I possess.

It is that archive system that I’ll be describing here over a series of posts. This first article can serve as an introduction, touching base with different aspects with as much common sense as possible. These are (loosely) the topics that I’ll dive into:

• Description, purpose & terminology
• Archive typology + relationships
• File typology + relationships
• Keywording + IPTC meta data
• File naming + Folder structure

Note the above should work for digital as well as analog: go ahead, read the above topics again, while thinking of film or original prints in a fireproof cabinet of sorts.

I’m not intending to get into debates which technology is best, or which system is better: yes, of course online storage is only 99.99% secure, of course buying all hard disks from the same brand is slightly more risky, of course we don’t really know (yet) if archival quality ink jet prints actually will last 100+ years. And the list goes on. My main point here is: if I make a good combination of all these “ninety-nine percents”, and then relate them to my particular situation, and given the fact I can tweak along the way by adding or changing parts, then i will de facto achieve my optimal “mix”.

Important is that I believe that every archive system should be tailored towards the particular situation of every photographer… Many photographers will have different particulars…. Mine are as follows:

• I travel a lot
• I own a house
• I know technology
• I use a laptop + external disks for at least part of the process
• I create digital (images, video, design, text) and analog (images, video, design, text) content, often mixed
• I work with “stories”, “projects” and “products”
• I have limited time
• I’m not rich :-/

Here is an abstract description of what my archive could be, given the above particulars:

My work is stored across several archives that differ according to type, format, location and accessibility.
Every archive contains a number of files that each have a floating status, format, type, date and a fixed identifier.

What is the reason that I even have an archive in the first place?

The purpose of my archive is to offer security for the original files and master files, workability for the edit files,
and accessibility for the copy files.

OK that was the hardest part…. really. To be able to describe in abstract terms, means you have to have thought this through and tested it all the way to the end: the above description and the purpose were the last things that I distilled after sketching and testing the whole system.

Again, this description or purpose can be very different for others… this is just what I feel is optimal for the way I live, the way I work, and the way I do business.

So now an explanation of the terms used above. Again, I cannot stress enough to think both digital AND analog.

Archive Type:
On one side we have an EDIT and a DEF archive, on the other side we have a LIVE archive, a BACKUP archive, or a VAULT archive. More about this terminology later, but both the EDIT archive and the DEF archive are live, backed up, and vaulted.

Archive Format:
Digital format (HDD, memory card, optical media,…) or Analog format (acid free box with images, filing cabinet, folder,…)

Archive Location:
The physical location of the archive

Archive Accessibility:
How can the archive be accessed: secured physically, digitally, location, connected to power, connected to internet….

File Status:
Original (singular), Edit (work in progress), Master (edition, multiple), Version (connected to job/story/project)

File Type:
Digital, Print, Film or Tape

File Format:
Digital formats (DNG-RAW-PSD-TIF-JPG || MOV-AIFF-MP3 || TXT-INDD-AI-PDF || etc…) and Analog formats (paper type, film type, chemical type, ink type, press type…)

File Date:
Creation date of the Master File (or Original File, if it is the Original File)

File Identifier:
A unique serial number

Security:
Protection against loss/damage/theft

Workability:
Optimal circumstance to be able to work with the archive and its files, depending on the situation

Accessibility:
Levels of accessibility by myself vs. other people (physical and virtual)

Floating:
can change over time until a Master or a Version is reached

Fixed:
Does not change after original creation date

Phew. Enough already… Next time more in detail about archive type, format, location and accessibility.

An interesting footnote: Getting this solution op and running will need an initial investment of max $5,ooo (hardware, software, online storage), and 6 months of work (given the fact that I keep on working my projects as I usually do). It seems like a lot of trouble, but once up and running, this can all be integrated into my standard workflow without extra time needed for future projects, and an annual cost of less than $1,000 (mainly projected estimates of buying hardware and sofware updates and paying for online storage).

The hardest part, as usual, is consistently keywording and captioning works. Don’t we all hate doing that one….

a

(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

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 to get the first issue of 893 magazine out there…. A milestone for me.

—

For some reason, this time we could not get a quick “hello I’m here” meeting with Tanamoto Kaicho, something which we normally always do first thing.

We walked the streets to the places we knew they would hang out, hoping to run into him. But we ended up walking around for over a week….

The area that they control is geographically very compact, yet it proved impossible to even catch a glimpse of anyone’s whereabouts. Very surprising for a sub culture so openly integrated into Japanese society.

—

At first I felt really bad in my little room in Kabukicho… waiting for something to happen. This is not the sort of project where you can make anything happen… you follow the agenda, you do not set it.

And then there was the rain.

During these many room confined Tokyo nights, I often thought about which role photography I felt should be playing in my life, and how attainable that goal actually is.

I mean, we all want to feel like we live “purely” from photography, don’t we? Yet everyone knows that nowadays photography alone (generally speaking) can hardly pay the bills.

But… I wonder… should one ever allow that to be the driving force for a decision to do or to not do?

I’ve always thought that, when making these kind of decisions, one should always, at least for the sake of argument, make abstraction of money…

Or am I being too idealistic here? I mean, of course I know I should keep doing some “other” things to support myself financially… playing wide… Yet I do feel the incredible urge to chuck out everything not directly relevant to photography. Even though I know that all this “other” makes me the person I am today… including my photographic vision.

I guess it’s all about finding the balance and slowly growing in a certain direction, keeping as much life energy as you can… as opposed to cutting away stuff that you don’t seem to like at first sight… Positive versus negative decisions.

—

P.S.

All’s well that ends well…. eventually our meeting did come through, vows were strengthened, and new appointments were made for the future, and I got to hang out again… everyone involved still very much into the story as ever before… And I’m heading back out soon.

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 photographer, seems to me to require not only many more “input” skills than you are used to, but more importantly clever thinking what to “output” and how to combine those elements.

After I designed my magazine, I felt the need to be able to take my images further than just treating them as “photographs” in the traditional way. Not that the magazine is incomplete in any way, don’t get me wrong… it’s absolutely perfect… but it is also just one of the many parts of the story that is Yakuza.

(FYI the BOOK will be incredibly beautiful and relevant when it hits the presses — for which I’m going to need some very specific help — but more on that next time)

I feel that by adding the stories I tell to my images, in a different way than is possible online, is an incredible enrichment to the story. So I designed a magazine that combines all the above into a package, the way that I actually envision it to be:

I’m not going to lift the veil just yet regarding other things that I’ll be doing while “playing wide”… but 893 Magazine gets the honor of being first in line.

So as of now I’m selling it as a hardcopy. Exciting… I’ll publish an issue twice a year, as long as the project goes.

I’ve worked on it for two months solid, and set the price at what I think it should be… so go ahead… indulge, enjoy… and please spread the word! post it to your blog, twitter it, call up your mom or shout it out in the streets… I depend on your help getting word out there. Seriously.

[button url="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1364125" target="_blank" size="small" style="green"]Grab a copy here.[/button]

[alert style="white"]In light of my recent win at Blurb’s Photography Book Now contest, I’ve changed the above link to the new Blurb version of the same Issue.
Those of you who ordered and received the original first edition of the first issue, you now actually own a very limited edition of my first publication… Hang on to it! More information here…[/alert]

Yes I know, it’s a big plunge – this is my first step to carve my way into independently publishing my work.

Obviously this is only the tip of the iceberg, and getting the complete Yakuza project out there will take on many shapes and forms. I’m just secretly hoping that 893 Magazine will gain enough momentum with you buying and spreading the word…….

So there it is. You guys have the scoop. With hopefully many more to come.

(You’re right, I also would’ve guessed that most of the other things I’ve witnessed up till now, would be harder to gain access to than a seemingly straightforward meeting…)

But thinking deeper, obviously there must be a reason: I can just picture all ranking family members being in the same room at the same time, for one, and then I imagine the plethora of sensitive information being shared and discussed, the various briefings and debriefings, business and accounting reports, schedules and what not.

Not that i would understand a single word of it if I tried… but I kind of understand their predicament.

—

But I have persisted for over a year now, and I quietly show up every time, patiently waiting outside the door for the right moment to come. Members trickle in… Glances and greetings are exchanged, respects paid, and short conversations started… Waiting for the bosses to arrive. Then everyone goes inside, the door is closed and the meeting begins.

And I stand outside.

I know I will get in eventually and be allowed to photograph. I’m engaged in that typical subtle Japanese game of  “showing that I would like to do something without openly asking for it” (because if I did, I obviously would owe the person I asked a favor, and this thing would lead to another to another to another… generally a situation desirable to avoid).

—

In the mean time, I enjoy the moment of peace and quiet while watching the Koi in the hallway. These are often the moments that I look back and forward at the same time, reminiscing my place in this world and the place of this project in my life.

Outside, barely a few feet away, the ever-living city passes by.

It’s a regular little seaside town, and the place we’re staying in is a traditional Japanese guest house. We walk up to the late Miyamoto-san, who is in charge of the annual organization, and greet him. He’s going over the daily routine together with Tanaka-sensei.

Tanaka-sensei is a master swordsman and martial arts teacher, who has fought in the Afghan war in the 1980′s by training the Mujaheddin in different combat and sword fighting techniques. He is here to teach the recruits meditation techniques, unarmed and armed combat, and bodyguard practice.

4.30 am. Wake-up time. Every morning there is a meditation session on the beach, right at the water’s edge. All recruits and a dozen family members are sitting in the sand at equal distances from one another. While Tanaka-sensei corrects postures, everyone sits still, eyes closed, listening to the waves breaking on the beach, the mind empty.

At 5.30 am, still before breakfast, the first training of the day starts: Hand to hand combat techniques.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all prepared and eaten together. The food is a fresh as can be, fish caught in the ocean right outside the door. Everyone earns their keep by helping wherever they can.

There are three intense training sessions every day, and in between, exhausted, there seems to be no other option but to rest in the dorms. And with days starting this early, most recruits go straight to bed after dinner. Meanwhile, Tanaka-sensei, Tanamoto Kaicho, Miyamoto-san and the other family members, drink a beer and discuss the schedule for the next day, which starts yet again by rising at 4.30am.

—

A couple of hours earlier, while we’re teeing off, Soichiro tells me that playing golf is a good way to really really get to know someone. It’s also one of the first things that Japanese businessmen do, and many business deals in japan are started, if not made, during a game of golf.

I feel ever so slightly uneasy knowing that i am, in part, being “measured up” here… but the beauty is that this is a double edged sword: i can do my own measuring too…

—

Tanamoto Kaicho has just finished his round, and arrives at the bath house. He gestures me to follow him in. I enter the first room, where I undress, put my clothes in one of the many little baskets, grab a small towel to scrub and proceed to the bath and shower area.

In the centre of the room I see a large hot bath with mineral-rich water from a hot spring, surrounded by showers facing the walls, each with a little stool and shower gear.

It’s foggy in here.

The boss’s bodyguard explains i should sit, shower, soap up and scrub first, then rinse, and only after that, go into the bath. Everyone sits together in the bath chatting, once in a while going back to the shower to scrub again, thereby letting the minerals in the water take maximum effect.

Tattoos are banned in many bath houses in Japan… originally this rule was made as a way of indirectly banning the Yakuza (as they were the only ones wearing tattoos). But as slowly more often people start wearing tattoos in Japan, this rule is becoming difficult to enforce. Nowadays, a family will often rent an onsen or sento privately, and all go together. Like now.

—

I didn’t win the game of golf… not by a long shot. But somehow i felt that being able to hold my own, and at the same time talk about anything else but business, was way more important that being to focused on winning.

It’s almost like the game in and of itself seemed irrelevant… and at the same time very relevant on a different level.

It’s kind of funny to notice the different “feels” a particular image has, depending on which medium, or in which circumstance, you view it. Heck even my mood makes me thoroughly dislike an image I’ve loved five minutes before. And vice versa. And this goes on all the time… Being able to delete at the touch of a button is NOT a good thing at these moments :-/

I guess it’s kind of logical that the above is true. but the thing that sometimes floats around in my mind is: is my mood “right”? So will “the” edit be “correct”? What is “correct”? What if i make the “wrong” edit? Is there even such a thing as “the” edit?

Oh my god. Too much parentheses.

—

Actually I’m sure that the “definitive” edit is a myth… Every project I do, has at least half a dozen, and sometimes many more edits. All these edits come together in a story: that one, all-encompassing mega-edit that is the sum of all potential useful images. And there’s more: every project has potentially many stories. And to complicate things even further: as a person you develop different visions over time…  Imagine keeping all this in mind while you’re making that one edit.

And all you can look at is one image at a time.

Basically I guess it boils down to this:

Know thyself very well, what you stand for, who you are as a person.
What you can, and more importantly, what you cannot do.
Knowing this, is your greatest strength.

As time progresses, definitely in long term, documentary-like photography projects, your vision, your story, your edits, continually adjust themselves and multiply or outright influence each other. Being able to keep track of all these things, is imho a good base to tell stories in a solid way (through different edits/projects) and develop a strong artistic vision (over time, over different projects, as a photographer, as a person, as a storyteller).

—

OK sorry… Enough over-analyzing… Basically I just started out writing this because when I held the book dummy in my hands earlier this week, it reminded me of how much pure fun it is to edit and edit and edit again and to foster and see it all grow and come together… I take months to do it, the slower the better. It’s like getting into a brand new relationship with the same images, completely different than the relationship you already have because of making them in the first place… And not at all mutually exclusive… Powerful stuff.

Being able to distinguish between these two “modes” is the key: being able to “divorce” yourself from re-living the moment you took the picture, so you can make that good edit, tell that story.

Of course i’m not forgetting about the major importance of being able to build that initial relationship with your subject(s) in the first place… Because this is where it all starts… If no relationship here, then no chance of ever being able to tell a story, develop a vision… Your own CONNECTION to the subject at the time of photographing… It is the CORE of being able to make a unique story… To be able to feel the story developing in front of you… See your growing vision… To be able to let go of all worldly things and simply get in “the zone” while shooting….

—

So it’s crucial to have both. Go figure. Hard thing to do. As if having one of the two wasn’t hard enough to begin with. how on earth can i divorce myself from those “moments”, and look at the picture in a solely media/edit-biased way without instantly being transported back to the moment? and switch back and forth between modes in an instant?

“Hi, i’m anton, picture editor.”

“Hi, i’m anton, photographer.”

What i do to solve this is basically the following: i let time go over the edits. i let places go over the edits. i let people go over the edits.

For example: small prints are hanging up on the wall in my studio in Belgium, natural light, almost clinical, moving around constantly as my mood changes, like an ever-growing edit;

opposed to that,

yesterday night, Taka-san, dear friend and fixer for this project, held this first book dummy in his hands in his tiny smoky four-person-max-occupancy bar in the red light district in Tokyo at 1 a.m., leafing through it over beers in a steady pace, in low light, sometimes pausing, sometimes asking a question. Nodding affirmatively, sometimes even emotional. Then my brother Malik, Taka-san and i light a cigarette, have a beer, and fall silent.

Which situation would you prefer?

—

Jeez that was elaborate… Basically only to say that it feels different to see someone literally hold your images in their hands in a book in a far away place in the middle of the night, making their own unique story while leafing through….

The family is in charge of organizing the service. Before dawn, they set up a room with a white shrine and flowers… the family name as well as the person’s own name is displayed above.

Guests and other families have been invited, and by sunrise they are slowly starting to arrive in order to pay their respects. To welcome them, the family of the deceased lines up alongside the room according to hierarchy, Yamamoto Kaicho first. Every member of the mourning family has a white paper flower attached to the jacket.

—

I stand in the doorway silently. I see the guests enter the room, burn incense for the departed, and say a prayer for his sake. After this, they proceed to an adjacent room where they sit and talk to the family boss, have a cup of tea, and smoke a cigarette.

At this point they pay their respects yet again by offering a ceremonial envelope with money inside. The precise amount of this gift is determined by a complex mixture of factors like relationships, business ties, a statement, personal friendships or past commemorations.

Souichirou tells me that often the deceased is mourned several times over different services, depending on practical circumstances, or even plain notoriety. I’m imagining the practical implications of organizing a single service in the center of a city with a Yakuza family consisting of several thousand members… In this case, it’s the second commemoration, and also quite intimate. Nonetheless, the endless line of cars is quite impressive. There are several members on “traffic duty”, redirecting (regular) traffic and providing parking space.

—

Every time the next line of cars approaches, Souichirou tells me which family it is, and a few words about or their relationship with them. I watch the members who are lower in rank exit their cars first, and form a line next to the road at the entrance of the shrine. A few seconds later, when the boss pulls up and exits his car, he is surrounded by family members. Everyone bows and greets while he walks past and enters the room.

—

The end of  the day. It’s over. The guests have gone, the rooms have been cleaned and everyone’s ready to leave. Socho, the number one boss, is the first to go… his car drives up and he enters. Again, all members are lined up, this time to say goodbye. I feel a little uneasy, a tall westerner hanging around at the wrong place, having no clue what’s going on.

The car is about to pass by, but then something happens: the car slows down to a stop, and the darkened back window opens to me. This is definitely not standard procedure, and quite a security risk too. I now see the godfather sitting there in his car, smiling and looking straight ahead. It takes me a second to realize why he does this… but then I get it.

—

I smile. I take the picture, I bow and pay my respects. The car drives off and disappears in the distance.

Taka’s bar is totally unique. Even in comparison with the area Golden Gai, plastered with hundreds of cool little bars in as many styles, that seat a maximum of about 12, Taka’s bar only has room for 4. His bar is literally a big box in which you can’t even stand upright. No running water, no fridge… just a cooler with a block of ice and a pick, punk music off a battery powered “discman”, and the walls plastered with movie posters and business cards of people that have visited and got drunk…. yes… mine included.

—

Sometimes i sit there, drinking a beer, and I realize: “look at me, sitting here in a frantic city with 20+ million people around me, away from home completely on the other side of the world, in a tiny claustrophobic bar that holds 4″. It does feel quite surreal.

Taka’s bar is effectively my base of operations in Kabukicho. As contradictory as it sounds, this bar, frequented by prostitutes and pimps, businessmen and yakuza, old and young, is the safest possible place for my gear. I also regularly check in at night when roaming the streets…. his opening hours are midnight ’til about 7am. Just a quick pop in to say hello ensures him that i’m ok, and he regularly calls when he knows I’m out shooting (that is, if he is not actually physically with me, of course).

—

Then a month ago Taka-san went missing.

—

As he guarantees my personal safety, my brother and I were worried to say the least. With an upcoming trip to Japan only a few weeks away (I was in Belgium at the time), and everything set in place, ready to go, we didn’t know what to do. Nobody of his friends knew where he was, or what had happened.

My brother tried calling him for days, but his phone appeared to be switched off or disconnected. This lasted for two weeks… in the third week we noticed the phone had been switched on again, but we still could only reach voice mail. What had happened?

Also, the deadline to come to Japan was coming closer. Decisions needed to be made. Should we call off the trip? Cancel? Postpone? After long talks my brother and I decided to continue as planned: as the first meeting with the Yakuza was planned only for a few days in, it effectively bought us more time to try and find Taka-san, and also put a backup plan in place (which involved me shooting images related to living in Kabukicho in general).

—

The night I arrived at the airport, he called us… All was ok… Apparently he had taken a holiday for a couple of weeks, and had switched off his phone in the process.

He was genuinely touched by our worries… We’re still finding out the real reason… but… he definitely owes us a beer.