Tag Archives: tokyo

Takako & Steve (Tokyo, Japan)

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In December I traveled to Japan to document Takako and Steve’s traditional Shinto-style wedding at the Nogi Shrine in Akasaka, Tokyo. When Takako and Steve first approached me about photographing their wedding, I was so incredibly excited that I would be able to experience and document this day for them. Over the coming months, that excitement grew and grew and grew.

Japan holds a special place in my heart. When I was 12 years old, I traveld to Japan and lived with a Japanese family on my own. I went to school whilst there and participated in lots of amazing activities and random Japanese goodness. Ever since then, I have had a love affair with the country. Throughout my teens, my host sisters and I would exchange letters through the post, they would send me all the crazy Japanese stationary and I would send them all things Australiana. I went back to Japan in 2011 and explored Toyko and Kyoto some more. I fell in love with the country a whole lot more. If you know me well, you will know of my addiction to Japanese knick-knack stores and my over consumption of Japanese food.

My favorite movie is Lost in Translation. There is something about Sofia Coppola’s work that speaks to me on so many levels, but mostly its the quietness and subtle undertones her work has. Possibly the reason why I connect with Lost in Translation so much is that I identify so much with the experience of being in a foreign country, from being a 12 year old kid exploring Japan to much of what my life is now, living out of hotel rooms, to all the wonderful people I get to meet through the experience of all of this, to quote Sofia – “The unexpected connections we make might not last, yet stay with us forever”.

I knew that while photographing Takako and Steve’s wedding, I wanted to capture the lovely little peculiarities about the Japanese culture that makes them so amazing and such beautiful, polite people. Lost in Translation does this so well and I knew from the moment I would be traveling to Japan to document this wedding, I too wanted that to be the essence of this body of work.

I only had a few days in Tokyo on this trip and looking back on it now, it was a complete whirlwind.  I cant wait for my next trip back.

To Takako and Steve, it was a complete honor and privilege to be able to come to Tokyo to document your wedding day for you. A hundred thank you’s for letting me do what I do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012 was a big year.

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I am sitting on a plane heading back to Melbourne and my head is spinning.  When I get off this flight, I pack up all my belongings  and also sell off and give away as much as I can. I am moving out of my apartment in Melbourne that I have called home for the last little while.  I am going to be living out of a suitcase for the next few months until I find a place in New York City to call home.

I am moving to New York.

These words do not even seem real.

In May last year, this thought had not even crossed my mind.   I actually had not even made my mind up properly until a few weeks ago.

Some may call me foolish. Some may think I am crazy.  All I know is in the importance of chasing after all that you desire with everything you have.

But before I attempt any packing.  I need to finally sit down and go through all the images I took in 2012. To look back and reflect upon what an amazing year it was.

It was a beautiful year. It had a lot of ups and downs. Laughter and tears. Heartbreaks and aches. Right decisions and wrong decisions.  But most importantly it was a year that taught me that anything is possible.

It was a crazy year.

2013 is already going to be more so. It already is.  I am going to write another blog post about that this week.

But until then, here is a look back at my wedding and portrait work from 2012. Being a photographer is a peculiar thing. I step into people’s lives for a day, wander around with them and report back my findings through a series of images. I have become an anthropologist.  In the process I spend some pretty intimate moments with them. I will never take that for granted. So here is all the very amazing people I had the honor of photographing in 2012.  Thank you to all my clients that has made all this possible. Thank you for letting me witness this all. x

 

 

 ♥♥♥

 

 

japanese daydreams

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“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

 

 

I traveled to Japan in June with one of my dearest friends, Dan O’Day. These are some things I saw. Whenever  I travel, I like to challenge myself creatively. To push myself to shoot in a new way then I normally would. I took my new Fuji x100 camera camera along with my Mamiya 6 medium format camera.  I ended up using only the Fuji x100 the entire trip..I love this little camera.  I normally only shoot film when I travel so shooting digitally and with such a small camera, I was able to capture images I would have normally missed ..like japanese business men picking their noses on the subway :)

Tokyo is my favorite city in the world. I would move there in a heartbeat.