stekki 08: december 2014

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stekki*

素敵すてきsu-te-ki /ste ki/

adjective: beautiful, great, lovely, splendid, wonderful, nice

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index/ credits

credits

EDITOR IN CHIEF Alfie Goodrich.

SUB-EDITOR & PROOF READER Paul Church

SPECIAL THANKS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Hiromi, Joe, Ami and Charlie [for putting up with and supporting me throughout the years], Gianluca Carrero [for the initial magazine template design], Matthew Lamb [for that chat in tbe van, on the way back from Kinugawa].

produced by japanoramawww.stekki.photography

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CONTENTS

6-78-15

16-17

18-3132-3738-43 44-61

62-7980- 9798-99

EditorialThe Research trip: scouting & planning the workshopTerminal Velocity from Tokyo: an introduction by Ron InmanRoute14: the first location of the weekendDown by the River on Route 20The Mountain, The Bus & The King of GrimLand, Lake, Peak, Skies: the countryside of Lake Inawashiro, Bandai & environsMinamihama Mamas: models by the lakesideMoments of Reflection in the tsunami zone‘Parting Shot’ by Paul Church

index

DECEMBER 2014,N° 08

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Some of the articles in this issue were written a while

back and I never got time to put them all into the magazine before now. It’s my great pleasure to welcome to Stekki the wonderful talents of Miss Lisa Fujiwara, who shot the pic of me opposite and who has a feature here, entitled ‘Shooting the Shooter’. I hate having my photo taken. Lisa nailed the assignment with consummate p r o f e s s i o n a l i s m . Great also to welcome Hasselblad to this issue of Stekki, as I embark - at the end of October - on my first location workshop for them. There are also one or two familiar faces: Shinyong,

Mari Nishimura, Mari Hirao [who featured in Stekki no.6]. Long overdue is the publication of my interview with Nuno Moneira, a Portuguese photographer based here in Tokyo, who I met at the end of 2013 around the time he published his book. The size of this Stekki is what I will be aiming for with each issue from here on in. Many thanks to all those who helped with photos, transcription and in all the other little ways that friends and collaborators have helped pitching in to make this such a great issue.’ Alfie

WELCOME TO STEKKI

Alfie Goodrich, Editor in ChiefPhotograph by Lisa, PaintWithStarswww.paintwithstars.com

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Catching the last 20minutes of light,

down at what seems like the edge of the

world.

DUNGENESSMODEL: Mari Nishimura

PHOTOGRAPHY: Alfie Goodrich

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DUNGENESS

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Built by the fishermen, to get their catch from sea to shore, little railway lines dot the beach at Dungeness.

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I was well into my twenties before I ever saw Derek Jar-man’s film ‘The Garden’. I’d seen most of his other mov-ies whilst I was at art college. The Garden was different, though. Based around Jarman’s sometime home in Dunge-

ness [an almost indescribable shingle promontory on the Kent coast] it tapped into my own past; a childhood of touch-and-go kite-flying [the area is famed for its extremely brisk winds], bo-tanical treasure-hunts for the few plants that actually do manage to eek-out an existence in the arid conditions and play-war ad-ventures in Dungeness’ WW2 concrete relics. Carefree Sundays spent based out of my parent’s VW camper, fuelled by cheese and pickle sandwiches and Irn Bru. Back in 1999, I’d taken my girlfriend [now my wife] to the area; on a trip that was focussed on showing her some of the places I hung out as a youth. All I’d had on me that day was my rather battered old Rolleiflex. I don’t have the shots to share here as the negs are all in a box, in storage and back in the UK. In the years since, I have been back twice more, maybe. I re-member taking my eldest two kids there a while ago, on our last visit to the UK. There’s been one more occasion but, to be very honest, my memory is crap these days and I can’t be sure. My recent trip to the UK was just four days long; part of a two-week shoot for Haneda Airport that took me around the world via Germany, France, the UK and New York. The time was brief but needing to shoot various World Heritage sites took me to Canterbury for the day and from there I put aside a few hours to explore the coast for shots, which brought me back to Dunge-ness. In part I made sure I re-visited the area as along with me on the UK leg of my recent shoot was a model I’d recently met in Tokyo: Mari Nishimura.

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The shore at Dungeness is strwen with awesome props and background

material for some great fashion shooting.

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Mari was living in Paris at the time I swung through there and she came along to the UK

with myself and the art director of my shoot, to get a little time away from Paris and see the UK for the first time. The prospect of having just a little time in Dungeness with a profes-sional model excited me. It’s a magi-cal place. The light is wonderful, the landscape unique. The relics of the once-busy fishing industry - boats, nets, ropes, winches, the rails to carry the catch from the boat to the road - all make for wonderful ‘props’. As soon as Mari and I had hit Canter-bury, I’d figured that swinging back to London via Dungeness [by far the long way around] would be worth it. As it turned out, we ended up chas-ing the last rays of the sun along the Kent coast from Hythe, through Dymchurch and past the wonder-ful 15th Century church of St. Mary in the Marsh to Dungeness. But fate treated us well that day and we tipped-up just near the lighthouse in Dungeness about 15 minutes before sunset. Enough time to get a few shots. Enough time to savour the magic that is the end of the day in this most unique of places: shingle as far as the eye can see, strewn with old fishing-boats, low wooden buildings and narrow-gauge railway lines. On

our southern flank sat the imposing bulk of Dungeness B nuclear power-station. The electricity pylons the station feeds stretch into the distance like giant stick-figures. When the sun hit the horizon, the chill in the air became more notice-able and as lights in the few houses scattered across the stones started to flicker into life and dusk took hold, it was time for us to retreat to London. Brief as it was, the half-an-hour fix of Dungeness was worth the extra mile-age and time behind the wheel. Find out more about Dungeness: http://www.dungeness.org.uk/

The Beach, Near Dungeness Road, Dungeness, Romney Marsh, Kent TN29 9NE+50° 55’ 10.30”, +0° 58’ 36.20”Google Maps: 50.919527, 0.976721

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Thoughtful moment for Mari, next to a derelict fishing boat.

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Fim-director, Derek Jarman, lived on the beach at Dungeness and his house was featured in ‘The Garden’.

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Cover shot: Shinyong’s red dress and the green of the surround-ings in perfect colour contrast. The wide angle and low viewpoint really make this shot pop.

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The last light of the day streams in from behind elec-tricty pylons and across the beach and houses at Dunge-ness

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...there is a special magic about this

location and a lot of history for me and my

family.

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THE PEOPLEPhotographer: Alfie Goodrich

Model: Mari Nishimura

THE PLACEThe Beach, Near Dungeness Road, Dungeness, Romney Marsh, Kent TN29 9NE

+50° 55’ 10.30”, +0° 58’ 36.20”Google Maps: 50.919527, 0.976721

THE GEARNikon D800E

Nikkor 135mm f/2 DCNikkor 50mm f/1.2 AiS

Nikon DR-3 right-angle viewfinder

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Taking a look at the textures and patterns in architecture on a route that transforms from quaint backstreets to the wide boulevards of the metropolitan government district....

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TOKYOWALKSNAKANO-SHINJUKU

The imposing, geometric bulk of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Building rises above Shinjuku in the lat afternoon light.

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TOKYOWALKSNAKANO-SHINJUKU

A small street in between Nakano and Shinjuku

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It’s a while ago that I took this walk with my son, Joe, towards the end of 2013 on a pleasant autumn afternoon with good light.

We started in Nakano, walked down the Broadway and then headed out towards the main road that runs down to Shinjuku.

We didn’t have any plan whatsoever, except to visit a shrine bar Nakano which has an antique market now and again. We ended up walking the main road because of the buildings.

After not really having any direction for what photos I wanted to take, I soon got drawn into the textures, lines and repeating patterns of the architecture.

For most of the afternoon I shot with just one lens; the Nikkor 135mm f/2 AF-DC. It’s more of a portrait lens but on a city walk it lends itself perfectly to picking put details and focusing on fragments of the city. It’s sharp, too. Very sharp even at f/2 if you set the for-ward dial [which controls the front and rear defocus] in the centre position, with no de-focus.

The best shots of the day were had when the sun was getting low, by which time we were in Shinjuku and I was soaking up the buildings around the Metropolitan Government building.

I love the colours around Shinjuku near sunset.

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Strining arcitecture on the main road between Nakano and Shinjuku

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Along the main road between Nakano and Shinjuku, it’s not all super-new

buildings.

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Glimpes of the Metropolitan Govt. Buidling through gaps in the high-rise....

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The late afternoon light, approaching blue-hour, makes for some striking

colours and patterns on the many high buildings in the area.

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Playing with the shapes of adjacent buildings, to create interesting frames and layers...

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‘Tocho’ or the Tokyo Metropolitan Govt. Building is a symphony of lines

and grids.

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Reflections on a cafe window near the central high-rise district of Shinjuku

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Natural and man-made textures are a feature of the area near Shinjuku Centra Park.

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How many people have you met in your life who

share the same birthday? For me that number is two: one of my best friends back in the UK, Ben, who was also best-man at my wedding. The other is model Shinyong Lee. The similarities between myself and Shinyong don’t end there though, with a shared birthday. We are the Chinese sign [Rooster]; the same height [172cm]; the same shoe size… and we seem to be in the same moods at the same times and we have very similar tastes in almost everything. You could say we are clones: one male, one female. The day I first bumped into Shinyong was at a hair shoot for Schwarzkopf, some 18months before we first formally met, and was the same day she

met the man who is now her fiancee. It’s all a bit weird, to be honest.. how bound-up the @air of us seem to be. But the simi-larities make for a situa-tion where the pair of us - as creative collaborators - have a unique and shared artistic currency; an abil-ity to be able to think on similar or identical tracks at the same time. That’s a real boon for a photogra-pher/model partnership. Shinyong is more than just a model I shoot with. She is like a little sister; she’s my photographic playground buddy, my muse. The areas of Tokyo in which each of us live are fairly close; her place is in Shiodome, mine in Oomori. When she lived in Daimon, we actually lived on the same street: Route 15, The Dai-Ichi Keihin. Physical proxim-ity means we meet often

STREET STUDIOTAMACHI, TOKYO

Exploring near the monorail tracks

[contd. on pp.??]

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The waterways and monorail tracks down behind Tamachi make for an interesting

location for fashion.

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Some vintage effects created here with Nik Analog Efex Pro 2 in Photoshop.

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Skirt by Eva FrancoJacket from Shinyong’s own collection.,

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ABOVE AND LEFT: You never know what props you are going to find just sitting on the street....

and whether it be for 10minutes, half an hour or half a day, we can always seem to pull something out of the bag that feels fresh and dif-ferent from the last shoot. Such was the day we met in Tamachi. I’d been in the area earlier in the day, visiting my son’s basketball game at the sports centre near the station.

Once the games were done, my wife headed home with our two boys and my daughter and I walked off to scout the area for locations. Ami stood in for Shinyong as I sized-up

a few spots around where the monorail line crossed the canals, we formed a little plan and met Shinyong at the station a short while after. The scouting walk around the area, the shooting; all of it took less than two hours and we’d managed to find some unique little spots, props and backdrops for our shots. I’d had in it in my mind to try something different with the post-pro and was visualising grungy colours, sepia, contrasty monochrome and scratched-up plate film, all framed around the new set of Nik Analog Efex Pro plugins I’d just acquired. I lie to pre-visualise the shots as much as I can and every shoot’s the finished article is always made up of camera techniques, lens repertoire, a specific and complimentary aesthetic for the subject matter [a digital profile or Picture Control now, a film choice in the old days] and the range of options I have and skills I can utilise in post-processing. That finished shot is what I see through the viewfinder when I shoot. Sometimes the result I end up with is different, because some thing or some mood changed along the way. But very largely I end up with what I pre-visualised. The shots we got in Tamachi showcased the dress that Shinyong wanted to promote; the look was a little different to anything we’d tried together before; we found a set of locations close to each of our homes which we hadn’t shot in before.. all in all, a great outing and another step forward on the path we tread together as friends and creative partners.

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Minnie Mouse or Princess Leia? having some fun with two air vents on this building by Tamachi Station.

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THE PEOPLEPhotographer: Alfie Goodrich

Model: Shinyong

THE PLACESTamachi Station & 2 Chome-13-1 Shibaura

Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to, Japan+35° 38’ 40.15”, +139° 45’ 5.25”

Google Maps: 35.644487, 139.751458

THE GEARNikon D800E

Nikkor 135mm f/2 DC, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S, Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S G,Nikon DR-3 right-angle viewfinder

s

A State ofMindAlfie Goodrich talks with Tokyo-based Portuguese photographer, Nuno Moreira, about his book ‘State of Mind’....

ALFIE GOODRICH: You men-tioned that your current book is a re-sult of walks and travels on your own through various places, but there is obviously quite a big thread of Japan in the book. You’re living here now, so is there something in Japan that you feel is going to spawn the next book or the next project?

NUNO MOREIRA: Not necessar-ily about Japan, but making the book was quite an eye-opener to under-stand what to do next. I understood by looking at the pictures, and I think I only started to understand because I had the physical object, which is interesting, because if I had looked at the pictures in any other form I prob-ably wouldn’t have come to that con-clusion. I understand that I want to go in the same direction as the book. I can do it in Japan, or anywhere else, but probably I’ll do it here because I’m here. That’s what will happen, but I’ll be going deeper than what I started to do with the book.

GOODRICH: More intimate?

MOREIRA: More intimate and more into a kind of painting atmosphere. That’s the kind of ideas I’ve studying lately. Probably indoors and working with, I don’t know, Japanese people, a few Japanese models, but I want someone who can jump out of the pictures, so it would be capturing again the same kind of mood.

GOODRICH: But something more constructive rather than something found?

MOREIRA: Yeah, exactly. Not something found, something that I will construct myself, but with the same kind of things that I saw in those early pictures of the book, which to me are now a bit old. The book has just come out, but for me some of those pictures are from more than five years ago, so I’ve seen them many times. I know where to go next.

GOODRICH: Personally for me, constructing things from nothing is always more of a challenge than shooting something that I have found, is one of the reasons you want to go in that direction because of the chal-lenge?

MOREIRA: Because of the chal-lenge and probably because, yeah, it’s something I’ve never done before. I’ve taken photos in studios but it was more to teach photography than to actually do something of my own, which is rather ironic, but it ends up being like that many times.

GOODRICH: Good teachers always learn something from their students, or maybe even more than they would do if they didn’t teach.

[contd. on page ??]

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MOREIRA: Yeah, it’s true. Many times I would see something and know where to take it from there, but now it’s time to do my own work. That’s it. I just have to find the right space and the right conditions and the right people to work with. It’s probably going to be a bit more of a painful process because it will take more shots and more time, and maybe it will be difficult to get a satisfactory result It will be differ-ent from the found stuff that we capture on the streets or the people who we meet occasionally, because we never know, we can’t predict it, we just have to trust our abilities and what’s in front of us and follow our instincts. This time I know what I want, so it’s a bit different.

GOODRICH: One of the things you get from reading the introduction to your book and the interview about you online is that the pictures in your current book, State of Mind, are things you’ve recorded when you are on your own, which is something you say you prefer to do, take pictures when you are on your own. This new project is going to be something you are proactively involving someone else in. I guess this is part of the challenge. What do you see in the implicit involvement of somebody else that could be the biggest challenge? Going from a solo thing to something that is something more of a col-laboration, although it’s still you taking the pictures and it’s your name underneath it.

MOREIRA: Probably the most difficult thing will be to work with somebody else, so that person needs to have the patience to work together for the same goal. Hopefully, I can find models or interesting peo-ple to work with that I can explain what I’m looking for and then go after the same atmosphere, which is the same thing I started doing with this series. I’ve definitely found a language here I want to develop, it’s just that I want to go more into a kind of fine art refinement and see it in a simpler and more isolated way. Now the subject matter is not, let’s say, free or in their natural environment; I’m bringing them into a controlled space to work with them and see what comes out. I have a bunch of ideas that I want to try out, but basically it’s rehearsing, it’s kind of a theatrical thing, it’s rehearsing to take these pictures and see what comes out. I’m very interested in seeing what’s coming up next, even though I still want people to see my book.

GOODRICH: And just to talk about State of Mind rather than jump ahead too much, I guess in the teaching that I do and the people I come across who want to learn something about photography, one of the biggest difficulties they have is editing their pictures, and I mean that in the old sense that we both understand of starting with 250 pictures and getting it down to a handful. How many pictures did you start with before you got to the ones that are in this book?

MOREIRA: That is exactly the number. I started with around 150 pictures, which was quite a lot be-cause I just did a quick preselection. Then I just had to start cutting away, which brought a big conflict in terms of editing the book and understanding what I wanted to do. Actually, if I would do it nowadays I would do it differently.

GOODRICH: And how did you do it?

MOREIRA: Well, the process was basically having all of the pictures printed and I would stick them to the wall or I would lay them down on the ground and look at them. Then I would kind of start doing se-quences and see what would work for them. I understood that it is completely different to look at them in a linear way or altogether, or in a book format flipping through them, because the feeling is so different. This understanding from doing things physically was so rewarding.

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TOP: NIKON D700 | Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AiS | f/1.8 & f/2 respectivel. ABOVE: vlah bhalckhebof2

GOODRICH: I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the part of the Genius of Photography by the BBC that talks about how Robert Frank and his publisher in France put together The Americans, but it was pretty much exactly like you say—printing out, putting them on the floor, and moving them around—but the interesting thing that came out of that was that they decided to have nothing on the facing page. It was a white blank facing page and every picture was allowed to breathe. There are some like that in your book, I remember.

MOREIRA: Correct. Besides that process and continuing to take pictures, I would also show them to people like you, to friends, to photographers, to professionals, and even to other visual artists, and I would ask for their opinion. Many people actually told me that some pictures were way too strong to have a side picture to work with because it’s automatic if we have two pictures, and we look at the spread, we start making visual games or we start making associations. So some of the pictures were way too strong to have another picture related with them. Sometimes I’m proposing those games with the viewer, and sometimes it’s just, like you said, the picture has to be alone and breathe and have a space of its own. So it took time and a lot of editing to understand these things, the little things, because every person sees things in a different way, and it took a long time until I was completely sure and happy with it. It was way too long. It took one year to actually do the book.

GOODRICH: Do you think it will be quicker next time for you?

MOREIRA: Yeah, I’m sure it will be quicker. The instinct part will, I suppose, be better, so, yeah, defi-nitely. It was quite a challenge.

GOODRICH: Out of all the places you shot that got included in this book, was there any one place that really jumped out at you as being rich for the kind of pictures you wanted to include?

MOREIRA: One specific place I really liked to shoot and will hopefully shoot more of is Russia. I re-ally like to travel there. Actually, a series I’ve done before was also about Russia and about the streets of Russia and the social and political context of that country. It’s so interesting. For people who like traveling and like photography, I would definitely recommend them to go to St. Petersburg or Moscow or just travel in Russia because it’s amazing to shoot there. People have these strong, sharp lines and faces and bodies. It’s so interesting. I will definitely go there again, hopefully I will go there again, to do more work. It’s not so much in the book, maybe it’s got two or three pictures maximum, but it was a very good place to shoot.

GOODRICH: Everything in here is black-and-white. Do you see that as a look, as a space that you want to continue working in exclusively, or can we expect something in colour from you next time?

MOREIRA: I will probably do colour work in the future. Not for the next one, because my mind is pretty much for now, and this is probably a limitation, still thinking in black-and-white, so I will just naturally continue to do that. But, yes, I see the possibility of working in colour. I see the possibility of doing it in the future. It’s just easier for me to think in black-and-white when I’m shooting.

contd....

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GOODRICH: And you’re shooting on film, right?

MOREIRA: Yeah. This is related to the topics that I’m shooting, so I think it’s also that. If the topic starts going in another direction, if the project needs colour, I will go for colour, so it will be a natural transition I suppose.

GOODRICH: As it should be, really, for the thinking photographer.

MOREIRA: Sometimes I feel like going for colour, especially if certain details need to be popped out of the pictures, although you can do that in black-and-white with different techniques, but I can see going into colour in the future, definitely.

GOODRICH: The magic words are “thinking in black-and-white”, which I guess is some of what we’ve lost with digital shooting because people tend to rely too much on post-production rather than getting themselves into a visual space because of the film they’ve loaded, which leads to thinking in black-and-white and choosing subjects that work in black-and-white.

MOREIRA: Right. The experimentation factor is very interesting because we can do it both shooting film and shooting digitally, but, especially for me, it’s more interesting to do it with film because I can do manual things. I can do them in digital as well, and I can see myself in the end with digital working more on the computer, but I want to get away from the computer most of the time because that is what I do as a professional graphic designer and graphic artist. I want to get away from the computer and do manual things, so that’s why I do it in photography, not for any other reason.

GOODRICH: Partly just to delve into the process of making the book again because other people are interested in making books and there are photographers out there that may not have done it yet, in terms of physically producing the book, finding the right printer, choosing the paper, coming up with a format, and little things like where to get an ISBN number, was that all stuff that you just went off and researched yourself or did you find a good source of information?

MOREIRA: I was a bit ahead in that topic because I do book cover designs and I do layouts for books. Actually, I’m now starting to help a few friends to do their photo books as well, so it’s an area I’ve been working in for some time, the print area, basically design for print. I knew what I wanted with the book and the only difference now was that I was in a different country, so I just had to look for those things here in Japan. This was a process I could only have done with my wife, who speaks Japanese, helping me and going through the entire process with me. I’m very grateful for her help because it would’ve been impossible to do it myself because of the language barriers.

GOODRICH: And you ended up with exactly what you wanted?

MOREIRA: Well, it’s a self-publication so for what I had available to invest in this book with my own money, this is what I could do, basically. I wish I could have had more means to do a different book, but for what I had available, this is what I could do at this particular moment in time.

contd....

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GOODRICH: Which is a good lesson in life: work with what’s available to you rather than thinking about what you would love to do with what you could have if you had the money or the time.

MOREIRA: Of course, I asked for estimates to do an art cover and a book with stamped or foiled titles and this and that, but I came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to do it by myself with my own investment. I decided against going with a publisher because nowadays publishers, and I’m not saying stay away from publishers, but it’s just that most of them will ask for money to do a book. So it’s better if you can do it by yourself, if you can find a means, and nowadays it’s much easier, everything is much easier, and you can basically hire people to work with you and you can control everything. I’m kind of a control freak, so if it’s my work, I want to know what I’m doing, so it wasn’t an option to go with a publisher even though there were two or three approaches with different publishers.

What I would have had to invest was much more than what I actually ended up spending doing the book by myself. I would say it was about half. It’s quite a big difference. Of course, now it’s my responsibility to put the book out there and make it available for the people, but it’s okay, we live in a digital age and we can do it. It’s possible. The means are out there. It’s easy to go after your ideas and do it nowadays because there are designers, there are printers, there’s everything.

GOODRICH: For you, what was the easiest part of putting this book together and what was the hardest part of putting this book together? It’s difficult to say which is the hardest or easiest, but something that you found just flowed or something that was a little harder.

MOREIRA: The easiest part, or I should say the most rewarding aspect, was the fact that when I was putting the book together I was also researching a lot of photo books, meeting people and talking about my photos or other people’s projects, and seeing other stuff, seeing a lot of exhibitions, so I was really immersed in the past year. Seeing a lot of photography can be good and bad, but it gave me confirmation that I had good material because I saw lots of not-so-good stuff on the way. That made me confident to do the book and to put it out and I would only do that if I was 100% sure it was a good thing to do. That was the easy part, trusting my work. The most difficult part really was cutting the pictures and doing the sequencing, and still it’s 80 pictures. Maybe if I did it now it would be less or different, as I said, but that was the most difficult part.

GOODRICH: Are there ones in there you wish weren’t in there and are there ones you wish were in there?

MOREIRA: It’s just that we as photographers, we have an emotional connection with those images so we know where we took them and we know lots of information that is not relevant for the people who see the final work.

That’s why it’s so important, I think, for a photographer to work with an outside person as a consultant or as a designer, or with someone who you can sit with and ask them to look at your work and give an hon-est opinion, even if that person will hurt you and say bad things, it is so, so important.I’m very thankful for all the moments I’ve had with other people who’ve told me things. Sometimes I had to ignore them and sometimes I had to really listen to them closely and understand what they were doing and saying. But that was the most difficult part, actually, to do this separation and to this filtering of information of what interests me to keep on with the book and what, looking back in 5, 10, 20 years,

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I will still feel comfortable with and maybe still like about it and what gets tiring because I know those images.

The truth is that if you stick an image to the wall and you see it everyday, you know if that picture is good or not. You will look again and if you still project new ideas and still construct and fantasise about that image or visualise different things or just think about your own things while looking at the image, it is because it works and it’s a good image. Some images don’t have that kind of dialogue. I was trying to look for that and it took me a while. Maybe one year was not enough. You can’t do that with 80 or 100 pictures. It takes a long time. You really have to stay with those pictures for a long time.

It’s not a cliché when photographers say that the important thing is to do a lot of work and to really select what you want and spend time with your pictures. I will certainly continue working with the physical thing, having physical pictures, flipping through them, showing them to people and asking them choose a bunch of pictures they like and see what people choose and why. That’s really interesting for me to understand. Why we feel attracted to certain images and why we go back to them again whereas others just are not relevant?

GOODRICH: Last question. The image you want to go back to, the image that does something for you, out of all those 80 pictures in the book, is there one that is like that picture on the wall, that you can get something new out of, that you are having a continuing dialogue with?

MOREIRA: There are two kinds of pictures in that book that still somehow fascinate me. This might sound a bit presumptuous, which is not the idea, but it’s completely opposite things. Some pictures are more complex and you can see different layers in them and some are simpler. At this particular moment in time I’m much more attracted to the simpler images.

There is an image of a woman just passing in the street with sunglasses on. It was taken in Spain and you can’t understand when that picture was taken. It could’ve been 30 years ago. There is a specific mood about that picture and about the person just passing by in her own thoughts and in her own life. It’s so interesting and there’s something there I can’t explain. There is a feeling in that picture that I want to go after.

I’m very happy with that particular picture and that’s what I want to go after next. Can I re-create that? Can I re-create those kinds of things, those feelings people have when they are in-between a situation, in-between a mood, or going somewhere, or shifting ideas? How can I do that? That is the next step and that is what interests me now.

GOODRICH: Thank you very much.

State of Mind by Nuno Moneira is available direct from the photographer’s website: http://nmphotos.org

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Nestled in between Jiyugaoka and Naka-meguro, Yutenji bristles with charm and provides us with some contrasting locations....

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BACKSTREETS OF YUTENJI

MODEL: Mari HiraoHAIR & MAKEUP: Miyuki IshikawaPHOTOGRAPHER: Alfie Goodrich

NIKON D800E | Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.82 x Yongnuo 560ii speedlights

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BACKSTREETS OF YUTENJI

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NIKON D800ENikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S GManual modeSpot metering

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“Almost every neighbourhood in Tokyo has its charm when it comes to doing a photoshoot...”

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NIKON D800E

Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S GF/2

1/250th secISO 100

Manual modeSpot metering

Processed in Photoshop & Topaz

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NIKON D800ENikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S GF/21/250th secISO 100Manual modeSpot meteringProcessed in Photoshop & Topaz

CROSSTHATBRIDGE

Andrew Holian talks about his first fashion assignment...

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Wh e n S h i n y o n g invited me

to dinner and asked me to take photos for her fashion business I was both happy and nervous but I readily accepted the challenge. The goal of the shoot was to create images that would help promote a new line of clothes she was selling by designer Emi Nakanishi. Specifically, Shinyong’s vision was to create a website banner with her and two other models as the banner image on her website. A week before the shoot Shinyong and I went and scouted the location, Rainbow Bridge, and we were both happy with it. On the day of the shoot my assistant, Jeff Matsuya, and I met about an hour before so I could give him a walk through on the gear set-up and my shooting plan. By the time the girls arrived we had about 1.5 hours to shoot so I decided to start with the most important/hardest photo so I could get it out of the way.

This is the photo with all three girls. I stood 2 of them to the right and one to the left. Jeff held a tri-grip on the right side with a single SB-700 diffused via a tri-grip. This helped light up the 2 on the right but obviously did nothing for the model on the far left. I had a limited amount of time and space and could not create a solution to light the 3rd model on the left so we moved on to the next scene. Next we did a few more group shots and then I took solo photos of all the models. We had a little free time while I had Jeff set up the Octabox so I decided to use that time recreate a street photo I recently took. This is the photo with a woman’s legs in the foreground and the two models in the background. The group photo, the one that was required, was my least favorite. (lighting layout to the right) I compromised the composition for some sub-par lighting solution. I guess that is how it goes sometimes. [contd. on pp.64]

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Off-camera strobe was thrown into the mix here, to

light up Shiho against the strong backlight.

Photo by Celia Rae

Henrik Jaeger’s long-distance shot shows the

drama in the setting. Prior communication with Shiho

was essential: at this dis-tance she wouldn’t hear the photographer’s instructions

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One of the ‘mood boards’ that was made before the shoot to introduce models, locations and broad concepts of the workshop.

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In the end, the customer, Shinyong, was happy with what I delivered and as a bonus the designer, Emi Nakanishi, was also impressed. I guess she said something like “these photos have better vision than what Chanel does” I heard that second-hand so I cant state it as a fact but I am going to believe it. However, in general I was not satisfied with the results. Here are some areas that I felt I did poorly at and I am looking forward to improving on next time. 1. Directing the model position in the composition. 2. Watching the models to make sure they do not make any strange/awkward poses. 3. Pick better location-Rainbow Bridge was good for one model but a little difficult for 3 models. 4. End-use Vision: I had the end use in mind but I did not double check the banner image ratio. After doing the shoot

I realized that none of my photos were shot wide enough to be used as a banner as-is. So I had to make a collage of images that I really did not like. Big thanks to Shinyong for having the confidence in me to hire me. Equally big thanks to Alfie for all the support. I also couldn’t have done it without the support of my photographer buddies, Jeff Matsuya and Jeff Austin.” Andrew’s website is at: w w w. a n d r e w g r. a m You can also follow him on Google Plus at: w w w . g o o g l e p l u s /andrewholian

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Alfie takes the 50MP Hasselblad H5D-50 for a walk around a few neghbourhoods of Tokyo...

> Yamanote Line train passes old and new buildings in the urban density of Shimbashi.

A walk with the H5D

< Man and his best friend: relaxing in a workshop/dwelling in the Shiodome area of Tokyo.

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A walk with the H5Dstekki_8786_stekki

Going square: there’s no native square mode shooting available in the H5D-50 but the newer 50C and CFV50c backs offer a square crop.< <

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A Hasselblad is one of these cameras that you always remem-ber first picking up. For me, it was 1988: Mid-Chesire College of Art & Design. The camera was a 500CM from about 1974. Standard [80mm] lens, which was also somewhat vintage. The kind that had the red aperture needles on the front of the lens barrel. Lovely bit of kit but the backs could be a little tempera-mental and I remember one of my fellow students getting the back seized on one of the college’s Blads. He spent a whole day stressing about having broken it. It was fine. The Hasselblads have a feel all their own. There’s something about holding one, using one that makes you feel like you are a craftsman. That you are holding something that a lot of work has gone into mak-ing; something with a heritage.

That heritage goes back to 1948 and a Swedish company who specialised, first, in aerial photography. Like other Swedish, metal things - Saabs [the aeroplanes and the cars] for instance - there is a reassuring solidity to a Hasselblad. It sort of feels like it’s been hewn from a single block of metal. It sits in the hand beautifully. However, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be… and fast-forward 26 years from that first encounter with a Blad to when I first had their latest model - the H5D - in my hands. A different beast, to be sure. Still as solid, still as comfortable in the hands but full of electronics, auto-focus and [although Blads

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The 28mm wide-angle HC lens is a beauty and the files cope well with the dynamic range of this scene in a fishing village in Izu.

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Streets between Daimon and Shimbashi, Tokyo.

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Payphone on the Old Tokaido RoadShinagawa-ku, Tokyo.

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The ubiquitous Honda Cub.Kita-shinagawa, Tokyo.

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Bus garage, Kita-shinagawa, Tokyo.

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Ahead by a nose: car parked in a house on the Old Tokaido Road, Samezu, Tokyo.

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Car parked. Check. Shoes parked. Check.Footwear getting an airing on the Old TokaidoRoad in Samezu, Tokyo.

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Yellow accents in this car park in the backstreets between Daimon and Shinbashi, Tokyo.

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Poster for a local politician peeps through the window of a delivery van in Shinbambam, Tokyo.

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were never cheap] costing a lot more money. I tried the H5D with the 40MP back. I was prepared for the resolution and quality to be about the same as my Nikon D800E and it was in many respects. In other respects the Hassie is way ahead of the Nikon, primarily in the 16bit files it produces which have a colour depth far superior to the Nikon and its 14bit files. The devil ]or angel] is in the details. The Hassie files bear very close inspection and processed through the Phocus software - pulling curves, adjusting black and white points - establishing a jaw-dropping level of sharpness is fairly straightforward and mighty impressive.

Plus, the Hassies come with interchangeable finders, unlike most of the other digital medium-format of-ferings like the Leaf/Mamiya or the Pentax. So you still have that ‘both eyes open, shoot from the waist’ camera if you want it. It was great to walk around for a day with the camera, most of all because of hav-ing been loaned the magnificent 28mm lens and the jaw-droopingly gorgeous 100mm f/2: a great succes-sor to the Hasselblad-mount Zeiss 110mm f/2 of the ild days.

The terrible thing about using the old Zeiss f/2 was that its bokeh was so seductive with the lens wide open, that you wanted to shoot it like that. Getting the bloody shots in focus at f/2 was another matter entirely. I can remember lots of disappointment and wasted rolls of film. For a portrait-bokeh junky like myself, a rousing ‘hallelujah’ is on order for the pairing of the 100mm f/2 with the H5D, with its ‘True Focus’ feature.

A small unassuming button on the rear of the grip falls comfortably to the thumb. This is the True Focus button and what it does is something just short of voodoo: focus on your subject [the eyes of a model, for instance], then press and hold down the True Focus button with your thumb. As you re-frame [that awful by-product of modern AF cameras that don’t have focus points in enough portions of the frame] the True Focus refocuses the camera at the moment you push the shutter button. Result? Razor-sharp focus, every time, on the point you originally focused on.

It’s my favourite feature of the camera and finally makes an f/2.2 lens on medium format something you can use with the confidence of getting all the shots in focus.

Since first using the H5D-50 and writing this piece [which was back at the beginning of this year], the new 50C camera, with CMOS sensor, and the newer CFV50 back have come out. The CFV back will fit on any 120 camera Hasselblad have ever made... that means you could get your film 500Cm, 503 or any one of the other cameras [including the SWC], put the 50MP CFV back on it and have the best of old-fashioned retro, manual lenses and wonderful usability... combined with 50MP, 6400ISO-capable digital convenience.

Wow. Now you’re talking.

There’ll be a full report on shooting with the 50c and CFV backs on the Kyushu workshop I recently did in conjunction with Hasselblad. This and a bunch of pictures shot by attendees of the workshop will be in a special edition of Stekki coming out soon.

www.hasselblad.jp


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CAMERASIN THE ‘HOOD


We head to Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, for a look at Crosspoint Camera; photographer Alfie Goodrich’s local, neighbourhood camera shop.

WORDS & PICTURES: Alfie Goodrich

CAMERASIN THE ‘HOOD

I first recall meeting Takahashi-san, the owner of Crosspoint Cameras in Omori, in 2007. It was the year I moved to the area and finding such an Aladdins Cave of cameras in my own neighbourhood was a little overwhelming. We’ve had a good

friendship ever since. I posted an article on my Japanorama website in 2008 and since then the shops seems to have had a lot of business because of it. I’ve bought a few cameras and lenses there myself, taken a load of friends and acquaintances to the shop. It’s ended up being a bit of a meet-up spot for a lot of people who know me on the web when they come to visit Tokyo. Crosspoint is not full of modern gear. Over the years a bit more new stuff and nearly new stuff has made it onto the shelves but the main reason for visiting the shop would be to find some older gear. There’s a lot of 35mm film gear, as much medium-format stuff and a fair amount of large-format too. He has a wide range of older Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Pentax, Olympus and Contax lenses and bodies. There are some rarities but also just a lot of good value-for-money gear that is looking for a good home. The man is a generous soul. I’ve had at least five free repairs on old, manual-focus lenses [one because he took pity on my awful skills at re-assembling an old 50mm I’d taken to pieces myself ] and whenever he has it and I am passing, I get free chocolate cake. Not sure you could ask for more….. Crosspoint is five minutes walk from the North Exit of JR Omori Station, which is on the Keihin Tohoku Line. You’ll find a map link here: http://tinyurl.com/p484dkg Be sure to mention me, this magazine or Japanorama to Takahashi-san an I am sure it’ll end up translating into some sort of bargain or other for you.

Takahashi-san, the owner of Crosspoint in Omori.

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Old fashioned service and in many cases old fashioned prices too. Crosspoint has plenty for the film or digital photographer; 35mm, medium-format or larger...


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One of the many bridges to be found on the stunning Route 471, that crosses the mountains south of Toyama.

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“Finding the empty and massive car-park covered in a fresh coating of metre-deep snow gave the kids a break from the

road-trip and they got see some monkeys....”

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Above and right:Joe and Ami have some fun in the snow, watched by another monkey... one of the many we saw hanging around the area.

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Road trips have been a part of my world forever. As a child it was the fascination of getting placed into my parents’ camper-van still half asleep, to wake on the motorway someowhere heading north or west

in the UK. Or to be woken once the van had been installed on the Dover-Calais car ferry and wandering up on deck to see the White Cliffs retreating into the distance in the morning half-light. My wife and I have carried on that tradition with our kids, taking to the road throughout the year to explore Japan and expose the children to as much of their new home as we can. Last December, just before Christmas and after I had been on a very long trip for work and away from the family for more than 30 days, we rented a 4WD from our local Toyota Rentacar place and set off for Matsumoto. One night there and we set course the next morning over the mountains for Kanazawa and the prospect of snow on the way. Route 158 out of Matsumoto takes you eventually to Routes 471 and 41. We chose to take the smallest roads in the hope of some mountain adventures and plenty of snow. We weren’t disappointed. After a night in Kanazawa and some exploring of the Noto Peninsula, we headed back into the mountains for one more dose of wintry weather and some last fun playing in the snow. A great trip, some lovely photo opportunities and plenty of wonderful snow!


The photographer reflected in a roadside mirror, down a side-road off the main Route from Matsumoto to Kanazawa.

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Panorama made of five vertically-shot frames, stitched together in Photoshop. The plateau between two mountain ranges near the main road from Matsu-moto to Kanazawa offers some stunning views and total tranquility.

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The photographer’s son, Joe, putting in a quick call from a roadside phonebox on the trip from Matsumoto to Kanazawa.

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This was shot on the southern edge of the plain that opens up after crossing the mountains from Matsumoto to Kanazawa. Sun streams

down through the moody clouds as sunset approaches.


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Looking back towards the southern edge of the mountain range we’d just crossed. Kanazawa was the final destination this day and we

would head there on a road to the right edge of this shot.


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A little trickery with Photoshop, to put two vertical shots back to back and create a mirrored version of one of the

bridges on Route 471 over the mountains.


Looking through one wintry valley to the warmth of the sun-kissed hills in the distance. This won-derful view opened up round a bend in the road on Route 471.

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shooting the shooter...Lisa Fujiwara of Paint With Stars takes up the challenge of shooting some portraits of Stekki’s editor....

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Hello there! My name is Lisa, and I am a girl from the California Bay Area, currently living and working in Tokyo. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Cognitive Science, I moved over to Japan in the fall of 2009. As a freelance photographer, I handle various kinds of photoshoots including: fashion, portraits, musicians and actors, couples & engagements, family and children.

How did you find yourself living in Tokyo?

I’ve had an interest in Japanese language, culture, and media since middle school, and the interest gradually ballooned as I learned more. The deal was sealed after I fell in love with Japanese music and met many Japanese exchange students at my university; I was mov-ing to Tokyo after graduation.

Has photography been a lifelong passion?

Yes, I’ve loved taking photos since I was a child.

If there’s one person you could choose to do a shoot with, who would it be?

Can’t think of one particular person at the moment, but anyone who has a certain aura to them, who can tell a story with their look.

Is there anything more difficult about shooting portraits of a photog-rapher over someone who isn’t in the profession?

Not really, I don’t differentiate between them when I’m shooting; a photographer is still a person. I’m just a little more nervous about showing the photos to them later!

Check out more of Lisa’s work at www.paintwithstars.com


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nakameguroNo sakura at this time of year but some great little streets in which to set up some lights and play.....

down by the river, under the railway

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NIKON D800E

Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AFS-Gf/1.4 @ 1/8th sec

ISO 800 Spot metered

Manual exposure mode


Nikon D800ENikkor 50mm f/1.2 Aif/1.4 @ 1/40th secISO 1250 Manual modeSpot metered

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These two shots

NIKON D800ENikkor 80-200mm AF IF EDf/6.3 @ 1/60th sec and 1/80th sec [at right]ISO 100Two Yongnuo 560 flashes at camera right, bareOne Yongnuo 560 flash bare, clamped to the fence at camera rearSpot meteredManual exposure mode

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NIKON D800ENikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S G @ 29mmf/8 @ 1/125th secISO 50Spot meteredManual exposure modeThree Yongnuo 560ii flashes, bare, on a stand at camera leftTriggered by Yongnuo 603 wireless triggers


Naka-maguroTokyo

Model: Mari HIRAO

Photos: Alfie GOODRICH

Hair&Make-up: Miyuki ISHIKAWA

中目黒

I am not one to sit still and do nothing for very long. My mother

would, if she were still here, tell you that I have always been like that. She’d say I’d had ‘..ants in my pants’ pretty much from as soon as I could move. At almost 46 years-old, I am too old to change. Actually, I don’t want to. So the day myself and the art-director for the shoot I was working on at the time were sat at Frankfurt Airport, with an hour to kill before our flight to Paris, he did what Japanese folk usually do at such moments [sleep] and I wandered off to shoot some photos. I didn’t walk far, maybe just ten metres away as I’d noticed the sun be-ginning to set outside and it was looking dramatic. The day had thrown rain, sleet and snow at us. We’d driven up from Cologne earlier and the sun had - as we neared the airport - begun to peek though the storm clouds. By the time I had nothing else to do, it was becoming a wonderful sunset. Outside the win-dows by the departure gate were the plane we’d take for Paris and another. Long windows extended along each ice of the fuselages of

both aircraft. Tugs, bag-gage trailers and airport staff busied around below. The scene was a wonder-ful collection of everything that makes a typical air-port scene. The window was long enough to give me a deep and clear reflection. Choosing the 20mm lens gave me all of the window and created a sense of space, depth and drama. With the setting sun and the in-side of the terminal [my indoor side of the glass] all in full view, the dynamic-range of the scene was huge. So I bracketed: five frames, each one stop of shutter-speed apart. I waited until nothing outside was mov-ing, took a deep breath, gently let it out and then stopped before firing: sniper breathing, because I had no tripod. Plus, the algorithm in Nik HDR Efex Pro [my choice of tool for merging bracketed shots these days] is great at detecting chang-es of viewpoint that come from doing bracketed shots hand-held. In fact, I find it way better at doing it than Photomatix ever was. Shot done, I enjoyed the sun-set for a few minutes and headed back to our seats by the gate, where Okada-san was still out for the count.

Photo & text: Alfie GoodrichPARTING SHOT

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Frankfurt AirportNikon D800E

Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AiS


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CONTRIBUTE?Stekki is growing. This year we’ll begin collaborating with some exciting names in the world of photography and, as the magazine grows, we’d love YOU to get in on the action.

Our brief here at Stekki is to showcase photography and Japan. We’re not all about photographs taken IN Japan. We’re interested in photography, Japan and things Japanese. So wherever you are from, if you have some great shots, have done an interview with a photographer or just have something to say about photography or Japan, then get in touch. If you’ve found someone cool, something suteki and Japanese outside of Japan, we’d love to hear about that too.

We’re currently looking for contributions from photographers, writers and illustrators....

Contact our editor, Alfie Goodrich, with a short synopisis of why you’d like to get involved:

[email protected]

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stekki is a japanorama production | www.stekki.photography

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stekki 08: december 2014

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