This time round has been extraordinarily difficult in Tokyo. It has been my longest trip to date (a full month), yet a slew of practical things and unforeseen circumstances have made me go home without a single usable image… Yes looking at it this way it seems frustrating… But, oddly enough, in hindsight, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be… concentrating on the stuff that comes after shooting the images, proved to be very fruitful. Oh, and of course this very same situation gave me time... Read the Rest →
I wonder how “wide” a photographer should be playing these days. It seems obvious to me that the time has passed that a photographer is merely required to make a good image. Input has expanded from photography to video, internet, graphic design, writing,… Output has grown from just “a book” to a smart mix of different things that make up a whole experience (book, magazine, video, multimedia, website, gallery, exhibition, …) … and all of it seems to be crucially important. To be able to “widen your output” as a... Read the Rest →
Ever since I started this project over a year ago, there has been one particular recurring moment which I, to date, have not been able to gain access to: the monthly general meeting. (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,... Read the Rest →
I arrive early. I’ve hitched a ride with two young recruits who will be trained here. I have no idea where we are, other than that we are at the beach somewhere, several hours away from Tokyo. We park the car and head on to the compound. 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... Read the Rest →
I’m exhausted, waiting at the entrance of the tiny bath house at the golf course near Narita, hoping to get in. — 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”... Read the Rest →
So my book dummy arrived last week. yay :-) 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... Read the Rest →
Bright day. Early morning. A commemoration is to be held for a deceased family member. 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... Read the Rest →
Meet Taka-san. He is a great friend and my fixer for the Yakuza project entitled “Odo Yakuza Tokyo“. He runs a tiny bar in the heart of Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo. 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... Read the Rest →
When i was in Mexico in the fall of 2008, during the Day of the Dead festivities in Oaxaca, i made the first image of was to become a life long project. I knew when i had made the image, that something had happened. But i needed long talks with family and friends to be able to put my finger on what it meant exactly… David, being in Mexico as well, was the first i could talk to. At the time i had no clue how my developing visual language... Read the Rest →
The covert training camp lies somewhere along the shores of southern Japan. I have no idea where i am, after being driven here for several hours, together with young Yakuza recruits who will be trained here. Greeting Nakata-sensei, master swordsman, I realize very quickly that i am extremely lucky to be able to witness and photograph this… — Most of the images are under embargo right now, but i hope to be able to release them over the next few weeks and tell the story… but I didn’t want to... Read the Rest →
I’ve worked all day to prepare everything. Made galleries on my portable; made prints at Yodobashi Camera. Wrapped everything up nicely to present to him. When we meet at his office around 11pm, Soichiro, my brother, and I go through the whole collection of images i have made up till that point. I’m nervous as hell. Slowly we go through every gallery, every image… Once in a while he flags one because he wants to ask a question or he wants me to make a print of it. To be... Read the Rest →
Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo… Walking the streets with Souichirou and his family. Kabukicho is the red light, food & gambling district of Shinjuku, smack in the middle of Tokyo. We gather at his office, where he shows me the work of Watanabe Katsumi, a japanese street photographer of this particular district who, for about 40 years, barely making a living, sold his street photographs back to his subjects. Amazing stuff. I’m surprised that somehow he must have taken the time to research this book and lend it to me to look... Read the Rest →
Thanks to my dear friend Angelo Guarracino and Giovanna Lalatta from SPAZIOFARINI6 gallery in Milan, 6 large high quality prints from “sugar” are featured in the Milan Photofestival VIII. Needless to say, i am very proud to be part of this event… the opening is March 15th, the festival runs till April 15th… Go ahead, jump in the car and be there, take a look in person, soak it in, and support me by buying a limited edition print! oh and… you can view a pdf of the leaflet. cheers,... Read the Rest →
David Alan Harvey and I started Burn Magazine in December 2008, just before Christmas. We both committed to BURN in NYC in December 2008 (after a large gathering of great friends & fellows where the BURN idea actually crystallized – read this), shook hands, and simply went for it. I know we launched on an impossible moment right before or after Christmas – I can’t remember which day exactly – but right now, either one of those days sounds like impeccably bad timing from our part :-) And throughout the... Read the Rest →
