His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Today I went to a talk given by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, and took some photographs as well. I went there out of fascination: with someone who has been through such an amazing struggle, and who seems to emanate spirituality. The Dalai Lama does indeed have a strong spiritual aura - he seems very relaxed, confident, and in tune with both himself and the world around him. What I wasn't expecting was the wit and humor of the man: he made many jokes, saying at one point, 'China expects me to be a trouble-maker, so my job is to make trouble!' The third photo also shows some of his humor - pretending to have horns sprouting from his head. In his talk, he emphasized the need for compassion, for tolerance of all religions, and also the importance of scrutinizing the media.

Tsukiji Fish Salesman

The Tsukiji fish market - the biggest outdoor market in the world - is famous for its many vendors, and for its atmosphere of hustle and bustle. While on assignment for Simply You magazine recently, I noticed how many amazing characters there were at Tsukiji - faces that had seen a lot of life. So I returned, and started a series of portraits. In this one, an elderly fish salesman poses proudly in his impeccably clean outfit.

Bluetooth SIGnature Magazine

Bluetooth's SIGnature magazine has just been published, with some of my portraits inside. The portraits were shot for the 'Man on the Street' story, in which they interview business professionals about Bluetooth. My challenge for these portraits was to keep them simple and natural, and ensure that the models felt comfortable, relaxed and self-confident.

Something We Like

I was recently contacted by 'Something We Like,' a blog on all things artistic, to write a short piece on 'what I wished I had known at the beginning of my career.' Great question, and I was happy to provide an answer. Check out the whole thing here:

http://www.somethingwelike.com/inspirational/clarifying-scope-of-work

Anatomy of a Photo: Koji Shiraishi for Metropolis

This month I photographed horror movie director Koji Shiraishi for Metropolis magazine. The challenge was to show his profession clearly, while not doing something cheesy or ridiculous. Each detail of the picture was important.

1)     The lighting. For this picture, I back-lit Koji from both sides, then bounced light back into his face, holding a Photoflex LiteDisc next to the camera, with the gold side towards his face. This provided just enough light - too much would have ruined the back-lighting effect.

2)     The knife. We needed something sinister-looking, and this knife - all steel, no wooden or plastic handle - fit the bill nicely.

3)     The blood. My initial attempts at making blood were somewhat disappointing, so Koji mixed up a concoction of syrup, corn starch, red food coloring, coffee grounds, and soya sauce.

4)     The tie. We initially looked at bow-ties, but settled on a conservative blue tie, to contrast with the scarier elements of the photo.

Naked Tokyo Exhibit

I have been working on a personal project called "Spirit of Yoga." Male and female models strike yoga poses, as I "paint them with light." This is an in-camera process, involving long exposure times and various lighting tools, to create a magical-looking effect. One of these works was featured at the latest Naked Tokyo exhibit, and received a lot of attention.

Photo Collaboration with Shantell Martin

I was recently invited by Shantell Martin, an English artist, to collaborate on a photo project. Shantell does these amazing, indescribably beautiful and imaginative drawings, using black ink on paper, or doing live drawings at clubs, creating an "aura" around models using a wacom tablet. More info on Shantell here: http://www.shantellmartin.com/.

The models were Sophie Knight and Stratos Hermes Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, both Tokyo residents and very creative people - Sophie has mastered Japanese and does shiatsu massage, and Stratos is one of the foremost DJs in Tokyo.

Check here to see more about Shantell's project:

http://jeansnow.net/2009/03/26/pen-tribe/