m e g a p e r l s

We were invited to a tea ceremony by our friend Satoko (nicknamed Frau Sugane by me) who is doing this as a hobby. I always find it nice to hear that people do traditional things like these as a hobby, for example Naomi recently started Ikebana and we always have a nice flower in the hallway. But back to the tea ceremony. Apparently the teacher of this tea house is quite famous, it is near Mitaka, I have to check the exact location. Once a year they hold an event, where they show visitors what they have learned. Since I hadn’t seen it in Japan, I was keen to go and I enjoyed the two sessions and of course the interior and surroundings of the actual house.

Afterwards we went towards the station and as a snack stopped at this yakitori place, which was full of people, even though it was only afternoon. When I looked at the photos later I realised that even though this was the same day, those things going on in parallel are quite intriguing. First the quiet and graceful tea ceremony, and then the loud and smoky yakitori-ya-san. Then it occurred to me that these seem really like male or female aspects of life, apart from the fact that the customers or guests at those locations were also in reality mostly male or female. I just found this a nice aspect of Japan, that these things can and do co-exist. It is the same day, however one might think these were Two Sundays.

It took a while, but here they finally are: pictures taken during our one week holiday in Bali, Indonesia in January. The reason for the delay is that we simply took too many pics: 4 rolls of film and over 100 with the digital. Editing and captioning those takes longer than you think. And even after an admittedly not very stringent edit, 156 pictures are left in the album. Yes, I could edit it down even harder, but hey, is there a better way to bore family and friends?

I admit I am pleasantly surprised by the trip, it was better than I expected. It was my first trip within Asia and across the equator. While we were travelling in the wet season (there are only two seasons there, wet and dry), the climate added a lot more character to the location. The lush green vegetation, humid air and exotic smells just came out tremendously, and if it is nice and warm one doesn’t mind a few big drops of rain.

We spent 4 days in a slightly “touristised” village named Ubud, the rest in a resort in Kuta at the coast (where the bomb went off). If you ever go, don’t bother with the beach and coastal area, unless you like monstrous development inflicted using the money of rich westerners. The hinterland is where it is at.

We were extremely lucky that our visit coincided with the holidays of Galungan, which is a Hindu festival taking place every six months. People dress up and decorate their houses, it was absolutely magnificent. Looking at the gallery, you may find that the series of photos are roughly categorisable into general impressions of buildings, vegetation and landscape, sights in the village of Ubud (palace, market etc), the beautiful rice paddies, street scenes and impressions from Galungan festival and photos from a Balinese Gamelan and Legong dance performance. We hope you like the photos.

As for technical details, images were either shot on Agfa Ultra 100 colour negative film and scanned by Fuji (and sadly over-sharpened as the artifacts show, but I pass it off as film grain here) and digitally using a Canon G2. When travelling from Japan we recommend specialist operator バリ王 (Bali Oh)

I haven’t put out anything proper so far this year, mainly because I cannot think of anything. So I thought I finally organise some old pictures which have been floating around on the web server.

This is a series of portraits shot while I was living in London. I don’t know whether or not it is a best selection. It looks rather average to me, but I pretty much had a direct no-frills style at the time, and after all was a novice. For the paid work I mostly went into the subject’s homes or work place and shot in an improvised environment. The studies seem almost all studio work, and self-portraits at home. While it is dated 1995-2002, the photographs are mostly up until 1997 or so. After that I stopped taking anything worth showing publicly.

Thanks to the encouragement of friends, I have begun again to fire the shutter in anger i.e. seriously for photography’s sake and not for holiday pictures or similar snapshots. I have decided to put out this old stuff, and this little explanation around it to somehow put an end to the previous chapter of my photographic pursuit. It’s about time.

I am making a fresh start, armed with the experiences of the past and the little personal wisdom I have gained in those gap years. There is plenty more waiting to be discovered and I am looking forward to the challenges I have set myself for 2004.

Going to a football match in Japan must be one of the most enjoyable non-mainstream family activities. There is not a sign of violence, just pure enjoyment and emotional displays of passion, pride, hope, joy, and disappointment. And many other people with kids, all enjoying the game as it should be.

While other football fans may be spoiled by the quality of play and general skill from other places of the world, you will be amazed by the truly friendly and sincere atmosphere and surprised by the passion pouring out of what we mostly see as quiet Japanese. And don’t forget to take your rubbish with you when you leave!

I was introduced to FC Tokyo by my friend Koji, pictured with the “King of Tokyo” scarf, and I would like to say thanks to him this way. Of course Koji made sure I support the right team: FC Tokyo. Their home stadium is Ajinomoto Stadium in Tobitakkyu, reachable with Keio New Line from Shinjuku in about 20 minutes. See you at Ajista!

This photo brings back memories at around Christmas time. I found it in a pile of my shots for that job, but this one was taken by my debutant assistant, who I had foolishly sent out and about to take some party pics in black & white.

Many moons ago, I left my job to study for my Master’s degree. The place at university only came by surprise, thanks to many helpful circumstances and people. My plan was to work as a freelance full time and I had equipped myself adequately already (extra camera bodies as backups etc.), but when the opportunity for college came up I scrapped the photography plans and went on to study. It was the right choice and all went well.

Still, I always kept in touch with the people at work. It was a great environment to work in, probably the best I have experienced so far. I have learnt very little professionally after I left the UK, but that’s material for another post. As the story goes, I became the official photographer at the company’s Christmas party, which I also sorely missed after I left the company. I joined the party and met all my former colleagues and caught up with what was happening. But there wasn’t too much time to talk, as I was there to work and I worked hard for my money.

That past job in London was very special, and I believe such a thing will never happen again. And of course, as times change it simply cannot. We were a great bunch of people, mostly foreigners coming to London in the mid-nineties, the centre of cool, where all things creative were happening. The glorious days when the battle of the bands (Blur vs. Oasis) was on, the streets were buzzing with creativity, it seemed every week a new magazine was put out and it was great. On my days off I trekked the offices of picture editors of those mags to ask for my chance, and I got it. I met a lot of strange and interesting people in strange and interesting places, cold and humid London flats heated only by the gas cooker. One of them was photographer Marcus Piggott, who worked with a great Scottish girl named Tessa Williams on an underground-ish magazine called X-magazine. “Give Marcus a ring, he’ll look at your stuff”, she said and I went off to Goldhurst Terrace, NW2 one night with my portfolio.

They were excited and soon I shot for the magazine. For example Andrew MacDonald, the producer of the films Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. In fact, my shot was just after Shallow Grave and before Trainspotting, and my brief was something along the lines of “Well, he is doing this film called Trainspotting, which is a term for a hobby for some people, and the film has to do with drugs. Shallow Grave was a sort of scary movie. Take a picture of him.” Which is what I did. Needless to say I didn’t have the slightest idea of what a success Trainspotting would turn out to be, neither had I heard of any of those people, like Ewan McGregor.

I bumped into Marcus Piggott several times over the years in London. He was still pursuing the photography, even after I had given it up. Then, about a year ago I read about him in the arts section of the German magazine Der Spiegel: he and his boyfriend Mert have become some of the most sought-after fashion shooters, taking pictures for the campaigns of Missoni, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss… They have finally made it, whereas I have changed my ways.