Red Soles

A Tokyo Cafe, Saturday night, and I can’t help but noticing her striking red soles. It’s always the little details. Omotesando.

A Grey Dress

My friend who is not only a fantastic friend, but also a talented freelance designer is starting up her own brand and needed some help to shoot some of her future designs. I picked this dress as it was the most dramatic!

Ever since I was a kid I have been drawn to still life paintings, dull and placid images with lots of details and very little drama or vitality. My first real love in photography was Sally Mann, not only for her beautiful pictures, but mostly because of the fact that it would take her hours to set up the camera, hours to print the photo. In a world where everyone seems to thrive on rush and the thrill of action I felt at home in her photography, and in other slow art forms, Dutch 17th century painters, monumental ancient Roman architecture, model railways, etc etc. For me, time was a virtue and in my paintings as well as in my photography I felt I could slow down or almost stop time.

But I am constantly striving towards a photography with more vitality, more life and more movement. My series of snaps from festivals are some of my serious attempts to make my photography more energetic, but I still end up with a series of snap shots frozen in time.

For this fashion shot, I asked the model to pose more freely, to move around, and I had a bare flash to add dramatic light and dark shadows. To liven even the darkness up I used a flash with the Orbis ring flash adapter as light modifier. In the end, we settled on this picture, a dramatic pose perhaps, but still a snap shot frozen in time. Like all my photography! Enjoy the dress!

Barbie Store Now in Tokyo

This is probably late news for most fans but the Barbie store is now officially in Tokyo. I didn’t have much of expectations for it but it was pretty decent and it actually really looks like life size versions of Barbie clothing. Strange thing though, Japanese has never been really into Barbie, they have their own character doll called Rika-chan, marketed by Takara Corporation. This store is in a bizarre shopping center in Tokyo’s Odaiba district called “Venus Fort”, a shopping mall themed as a dry land fantasy version of Venice, complete with fake renaissance cosplay attendants. Enjoy!

Recycled Ballroom Dress – Mina Sugita

At the National Art Center I saw this wonderful installation, a ballroom dress made out of recycled cloth, complete with shoes, gloves and a purse all made of recycled material. For a fashion fan like me (who probably watched the movie Marie Antoinette just for the fashion about 25 times), this is great. I also love the DIY aspect – I am a big fan of fashion out of recycled material, staples instead of sewing and thick paint). I would love to see more of this artist, Mina Sugita (杉田美奈).