Tell us about your background?
I’m a Japanese Australian raised by two sculptors, I would personally say this has perhaps influenced me in my creative work the most.
I started off by studying Communication Design at Monash and have since further explored photographic imagery through Photography Studies College.
Creatively growing up in such a creative household has challenged me to always look at things beyond the surface and approach my work with a more conceptual approach.
How did you get into photography?
Funnily enough I didn’t truely get into photography until I was in my early 20’s, I’ve always been obsessed with image making but it was not until my mother handed me my grandfather’s Nikon F3 that I truely found my ideal medium.
Since then I’ve been obsessed with making images, taking photos of the candid moments and more recently shooting staged set ups I’ve created together with a team.
How would you describe your style?
I’ve never been sure I have a style, my close photography friends would say otherwise however. I guess I’m always attracted to the shape and forms within my compositions, I love seeing how these can be constructed and played with.
I also tend to gravitate towards primary colours, I love bold pigments like a crimson red and ultramarine blue.
What’s your favourite subject to shoot?
I’ve gravitated towards constructed scenes like editorial fashion photography but recently I’m interested in how you can push photographic process, reshooting photographs, obscuring parts of the image and other physical interactions. I also love delving into photobooks and how you can tell a more complex story or feeling through a series of images sequenced together. This method has been particular poignant in my personal photographic series and I’ve been able to focus on belonging and the impacts of family and generational trauma from immigration with the complexity these topics deserve. I’ve found that photography is one of the easiest creative tools to learn, which also makes it incredibly difficult.
What’s next for you?
I have a couple exhibitions coming up, one of which I’m incredibly excited about but can’t disclose just yet.
Otherwise I’ll keep going with my freelance work and hopefully do an artists residence sometime in the next year to help kickstart a solo exhibition and a photobook.
