“There was a time in my life when the world was less beautiful. Then I bought a camera.”
Collections
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The rice won't grow itself
IT HAD RAINED THE NIGHT BEFORE. We had planned to shoot at a beach near Seminyak, Bali but with the weather, schedules are pretty much just a wish list. But the rain would help with the heat, and the standing water might be a good addition to the set we needed in the countryside, along rice paddies. So we headed inland, to a farm my fixer knew about about.
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My playground was different
MY PLAYGROUND WAS DIFFERENT from these kids, but maybe I am jumping too far ahead of the story. I was in China, about an hours drive outside of Shanghai, working on a Chinese children’s television show. The area was a strange mix of warehouses, lumber yards, storage facilities.
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La Concha de San Sebastian
It felt like time had passed this place by, or at least just stopped. We were there on our honeymoon. San Sebastian, Pamplona, Bilbao. Flew to Paris from Singapore in 2016, a few months after we got married.
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Black and White
I have always had a love for black and white photography. I seem to interpret more when I view black and white, trying to find the story in the tones, the moment in the light. To me, black and white is sexy, magical, moody. I once read that black and white is like reading a book, while color photography is like watching a movie. Makes sense to me.
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Color
My love affair with photography began with black and white, color images came later. At first I felt like I was cheating on a lover, with this vibrant, crazy, live in the moment mistress, of color. Black and white might feed the soul, but color feeds the eyes. Because we live in a colorful world, to me, color photography is more a snap shot of a moment, literal, truthful, certain. Color is reality. I find it more difficult as well, less forgiving. This applies both to color photography, and reality itself.
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Structures
Building are interesting. At university, I studied some architecture, eventually taking a degree in Environmental Design, which had me explore both structural and interior design. I had thought I wanted to be an architect, until I spoke with architects. But to this day, I am fascinated with how buildings are made, how they are considered, and what they add, or take away, from the landscape.
OMAKASE
The Photographer Selects
2010-2019
omakase (お任せ o-makase)
Omakase is a Japanese phrase that means “I’ll leave it to you” (from the Japanese “to Entrust”).
Numbers have meaning, as do dates, and it only seemed fitting that I should hit pause and go back through the thousands of images I had shot since I arrived in Asia. That was 2010, November, and while I had taken photographs before, I hadn’t really paid attention to them, or to the process, the art.
I bought a used Leica D-lux 4 point and shoot camera in the basement of a run down shopping mall and began taking pictures. I traveled to other countries, tasted new foods, saw new things and fell in love in the process.
When I decided to formalize my images, it was a challenge to go from image maker to image editor. It’s hard to get rid of your children, but I had to select from the over 18,000 photographs I had shot in these 10 years.
