Hate to say "I told you so"....

After 3 hours in Canon service centers care and ¥12075 from my pocket the G9 mystery problem got solved. Was told it was some data reader in the camera that was broke and got replaced with a new unit. A friend of mine was sure it was a curse from a road-kill cat I was shooting a couple of month back, and he told me that the service people at Canon just did a simple exorcism and dragged the evil spirit (in this case a pissed-off stray cat!?) out and that it shouldn't have been so expensive. Well, I'm back in the pocket camera world and glad it all got solved, demon or not!

The COVE (another money & greed tale...)

Better stop this slaughter right now, you can support by telling about this documentary.....LINK







Another proof that the so called "humans" are just animals after all.......or?

SURVIVE / PULLING TEETH

I was invited to shoot metal band SURVIVE for their DVD release gig last Saturday. Pulling Teeth, another band I have also been shooting for many years now was opening up. Nice to see these people from time to time, they all live for the music and it seems like everything they do is evolving around the band and music. I like this kind of dedication to a cause, whatever it may be.
Funny when you shoot bands, you get your "favorites". Some musicians are just more photogenic than others, the way they move, their pose and statue all play roles in how the final composition will be. For some reason (I actually don't really know why myself) I always get just the perfect shots when I shoot Shinjiro (Bass Survive), I don't think I have one "bad" shot of him. Same goes for Taiji (Bass Pulling Teeth), it's good fun when it turns out just like you have prepared to shoot, get what you played up on beforehand in the mental image. Of course the opposite also occurs. There are some people really hard to get a good shot of. I won't tell you who, you'll see for your self.


















Pulling Teeth

The Creature V.S OGRE

First day of shooting OGRE Japan's new promotion video for their song "Betrayer". I decided to go out of the normal "promo" rut and do more of a "visual" field study of the from-now-on Ogre's symbolic real-life demon. This guy is real, no fake stuff my friends. Well, the blood was cos we couldn't find enough real human blood in time for the shooting...ha ha ha. The music OGRE plays are really heavy and hits you in the face like a sledgehammer. I will with this piece try to get the musical and the visual to be a mismatch of a sort where hopefully the visual helps to tighten the musical end vice versa. Also to push "The Creature" a.k.a Mao more into the Ogre "family". If you see him at a show, pay him some respect. Lets see how the boys like it after editing and all that stuff. A real challenge for me to shoot something like this on video, as well as another aspect of visuality. Shooting elephants in the forests of Northern Thailand, Lighthouses in Oregon, cooperative CEO's or blood stained death metal is all the same when it comes down to the basics. Just have to try to keep it simple&clean, straight and with a personal touch.

Feeding the Monkey

Just another observation.. or two

Back in town after a pretty fruitful week abroad. I might have mentioned before on this blog, how nice it is to return back "home" to Tokyo after a time away. Japan never stops to interest me and make me feel I haven't seen enough yet. Being on of the most modern as well as one of the many highly (over) educated nations on this planet it is really interesting to also observe that some of the sickest people (I have ever met anyways) are from here. A combination of a culture built up on a really unique history and a clash with modernity in a very short time has shaped a nation like no other( China and South Korea not far behind). It's always more obvious when you go abroad to see how twisted and out of touch with reality and common sense the majority of the Japanese are. When the norm of Nippon and "follow the leader" mentality isn't around to fall back on the most absurd situations occur. Truly unique, always a pleasure to observe. Landing in Narita and all falls back to it's given place. All those funny "travel" clothes, Mickey Mouse suitcases and synchronized group movements make sense here, the "WE are home" feeling in the arrival halls is dense and like I said, stuff make sense suddenly. Like a camouflage painted Hummer truck suddenly make sense in the desert but has no obvious function more than being loud, expensive and inefficient transportation anywhere else. If the Japanese would be a car they wouldn't be a little Nissan or Suzuki, no, they would be a fully equipped Hummer truck built for operation desert storm but used as tour group transportation at Tokyo Disneyland.

Anyways...
I was shooting lots with my Canon G9 the last week, but when I came home some loveless bastard camera/SD card gnome virus had deleted all images...!? -"Naa, boy...you probably did something wrong. It can't happen!" you might say. Well, I have not a trace left of that exceptional thunder storm cloud I wanted to post here today...same goes for the rest of the images...F.U.C.K. Time to take the camera back to the service center (again) to have some clueless temp-staff giving me some transparent answers (i.e they don't know either what's wrong)....man, I loved that camera!

Have some more images on the way, stay tuned.

---On the road again---

Heading out on the road again, won't be home between June 27 - July 6.

Contact me on (if you have to!) : nishitaka@hotmail.com


















By the way, just bought today the Steve McCurry's latest masterpiece. For you who already know about him have seen some of the images in his new book before. But there are enough new stuff too keep your jaw dropped while/and rushing to the nearest travel agent to hit the less beaten path on a shoestring once again. That is how I feel every time I see his photographs. He is for me the most inspiring photographers living today. You either do it or you don't in my world view, McCurry is doing it...


Steve McCurry - The unguarded Moment





Photos from his new book

Greenpeace Japan

Since I have always supported the ideas behind organizations like Greeanpeace and Amnesty international etc. I was happy to be asked by Greenpeace Japan to shoot a small event they held last week here in Tokyo. Met Greenpeace Japan executive director Hosjiwaka Jun as well as action campaigner Suzuki Toru, well known for his actions against illegal international whale hunting. Last year he brought out into the light the by law protected criminal profiteers who are still operation under the shady protection of "science"! A nice eye opener for the world but sadly a case still in limbo.





Artist Sunplaza Nakano was there supporting the cause.

Noguchi Ken - Alpinist

I had the pleasure to shoot Japans most well known alpinist yesterday. Not a lot of time (about 15min) to get as many interesting angles as possible. But I am pretty sure that the magazine that assigned this shoot will have what they need. Noguchi was interview by my long time travel assignment journalist friend Tony McNikol. Last time we worked together was for ANA's inflight magazine Wingspan, where we traveled the North American west coast shooting lighthouses.

Jim Phillips & and the worlds most famous left hand.

Jim Phillips and Santa Cruz Skateboards is a winning concept. Had the chance to visit Mr.Phillips in his workshop, nice guy.









Went down to Santa Cruz S.B's HQ as well.

Skull & Sword

Another assignment. A true privilege to meet the people of Skull and Sword tattoo studio in San Francisco. These artists are the tip of the sword (of Jihad). Thanks Grime for taking your time and thanks Yutaro and Clay for open up the door for me. The article should be out in the stands shortly.

The road

Wish we travelled in this one instead of the more modest Ford rental.



California / Nevada. Part 4 in a series of American on/off the beaten track photography.

























































































































I just couldn't pick the stronger of these two. Any suggestions?!

Ink&Iron 2009

Was shooting an assignment down in Long Beach when in California. This tattoo and custom culture festival on the RMS Queen Mary was pretty cool this year as well. American street culture all in one fat weekend. Bands like Eagles Of Death Metal and The Woggles (tight) played so I got my dose of this needy formula. I'm not a big car fan but machines and metal works are pretty photogenic so I ended up shooting more of this than any editor would ever want to touch. Post it here instead where it makes more sense. If you ever end up in Long Beach C.A, check out the Queen, stunning marine engineering and design. I was in the merchant marine for 10 years before I started photography professional so I get kinda gloomy that I don't have the same access to being on a ship and seeing the ocean anymore, bitter sweet for sure!

Tha Studio gig

Off stage stuff from my metal buddies of OGRE. True metal indeed. We are starting a new music video/promotion video shortly. I will shoot and direct this master piece so stay tuned....it will be evil!!

In Transition

Back after some pretty cool moments (not cool as cold though, Death Valley was sizzling...almost stepped on a rattle snake as well!) in California and Nevada. Will get through the files after the weekend when I have reached the deadlines for jobs I set out to do. Got some master pieces for sure....so fucking happy that I have the ability to actually get what I intend to get with my cameras.





Stay tuned

Bye bye baikin...

Out of town till the end of June.

San Jose / San Francisco / Long Beach / Death Valley

D.I.Y or D.I.E

Ms.Tanaka ...please try a Little More

No photos in this post, doesn't deserve it!

I pretty much know that I should better leave this alone and just go on in life as usual. I have a feeling that I will have to eat this up in the future but it's my blog so fuck it, and what's on the agenda is pretty interesting though sad. I had a couple of meetings with various book publishers here in Tokyo the last week, and what I learnt from these pretty weird encounters has really made me think. I guess (hope) this is a Japanese phenomena and not completely world wide. I have taken a pretty deep look of what's out there in forms of photography and there seems like the Japanese market really never had a market to start with and what it has and is around today is based of famous names (who made them famous?) and the like, the industry is a beauty isn't it? It's really seldom you find something that is based on photography as photography and not a theme or "topic" only. Quality photography is dead in Japan and it's thanks to the editors and book publishers that choose what to push out to the masses. Can hear it myself that I sound like a complaining bitch and that some of you may well think that I should just make my photography better then , adopt and go on. Well, it's not about me this time, It's not me I feel sorry for, it's about what we have put in front of us and slowly becoming a norm all by a chance. I had meetings with a couple of leading "cutting edge" book publishers, Little More is called one of the leading of the sort here in Tokyo. What I was shown while meeting the "editor" just made me.... disappointed and sad. Of course, if this innovator on the Japanese market set the norm and this is what they have to show there is not much for a guy like me here anymore. To completely be able to cut out all the beauty in photography and without looking a little bit deeper into what is within the frame really was something that I have seen coming but not in this scale...and I am a person with wide open eyes. Photography as flat, washed out and lifeless ideas mixed with thoughtless compositions and a quality lacking in all aspects. No respect to the photo within the image. In a way I am quite grateful to have the chance to meet a young (what is film photography...) striving yet blind business woman like Ms. Tanaka and that I am sure people in similar positions here in Japan will have worked the "Japanese style" into something new and inspiring for new comers in this "scene". We all know it's not photography, but who cares...? (I do, but I am just who I am...not enough)

I see this way of thinking in so many genres here in Japan, a place I actually really like living in. Music, The most fabulous musical instruments are made here but the users who learnt how to use then and make music into something beautiful / powerful with life baked in the mix is very seldom from here. The few japanese bands of musicians that has something of a talent can often not live on it since they are not given the chance by not being money makers and the masses needs something more simple and easy to digest. The music industry...industry? shouldn't this word alone be enough to make you start thinking? Get the point!?



Signing out /

Mattias Westfalk

Bikes

Stuff from the street

Kinda felt a little like this today...struggling to get some shit done. "It's a long way to the top if you wanna Rock'N'Roll" (Bon Scott) also played in the back of my head.




Trashed the city streets with Young Sam later on....feeling petty empty now...!

Horizontal

The horizontal portrait, gives you a more environmental feel and a less "fine" framing of the face....but what do I know about anything? ....well, why not!?

Monsieur Bouissou

Did a small photo essay on one of my closest friends while he visited me during the holidays. If you go back in the blog to June 2007 you can find more stuff on him. Pretty interesting guy. Bike fanatic, photo geek, weird travel destination seeker, French Osakanian pro leather craftsman.










Hates mornings, Loves beer, brought RxKxBx to Osaka.

A day in the park

Golden week, a week of slow life for the ones that decide not to hit the beaten track. Spent an afternoon in Tokyo's oasis of Meiji Park under the huge trees and relative tranquil mood. To be able to have access to a place like this in the very middle of this megapolis is a treat. If you come here on dark and rainy winter days the mood is extraordinary. B/W summer is cool as well.

(More) OGRE

Why do I post so much OGRE? Because I really like the whole a atmosphere around it all. The sound, the members and the pure and raw metal that is being produced.

Mayday Mayday Mayday

May 1st, while the majority were out there with flapping banners and coarse slogans I spent midday eating an All-You-Can-Eat cake buffet for lunch (weird experience indeed, heavy sugar rush after second helping). Then a walk in the park with my better half, loaded with whipped cream and cheesecake, summer is here again. I have the luxury of being in possession on a small lot of dirt, well, we call it our garden. And the tulips we got from someone was in full bloom so I couldn't resist to shoot some. Flowers are cool in many ways. The colors, shape, the social meaning and purpose as plants...ever though why they look like they do? Darwinism rules.

Then did a couple of hours on a future photo exhibition about the history of The Ghetto. Was shooting my friend Ako's art exhibition there, in the shadier part of town. Black&White suited best to the mood and also a fine contrast to todays earlier outings.












The Ghetto

OGRE in Svartvitt

AntiKnock is a legendary Tokyo venue, like CBGB in NYC but this one is still in action. This place is a dull MF'er to shoot at since the light consist of mainly blue, white and some weird pink/purple. All in spotlight on full or nothing, so you either have something too overexposed or way under if you don't shoot with a flash. I was shooting in B/W without flash through a fixed 50mm to see what could be done about it, turned out half good I think. This band is really heavy and delivers a well aimed punch of strong trash/death metal but in a kind of new wave of NWOAHM, so the B/W works for sure.

I put up some more on the RxKxBx site as well, way way different though....HERE


A friend of mine saw SickOfItAll play here once 15 years ago or something, half time and the organizers had to stop the show, tell everyone to go outside for half an hour so they could get some air pumped down (it's in the basement) so the band could breath and have people stop passing out allover. Around the corner is a small police shack (called "Koban" in Japan...BTWFTP) and they had stopped response to calls from AntiKnock for all the fights. Just let the mayhem continue as long as it wasn't taken up on the streets. Pretty slow nowadays though, guess todays kids just have a too strong emo DNA implanted in their girlish little wannabee fake lifestyles....did I just say that....? So what!

Through a lens

I clearly remembered the feeling of seeing the first digital images when this medium started to come out on the market in publications etc. It was often a flat, cold image with the wrong color balance, full of noise in the wrong places. I do not think that a blurred or grainy photograph is a bad thing, amy times it actually helps bringing out the reality , but when it came to the first digital frames I really saw that this was the new way to completely destroy the beauty of photography. During the years we have come to get use to these "looks" and it has become the norm. Todays sensors and software may have improved on top of that and to pursue the "original" style has become a quest from all major camera makers. I was looking through Annie Leibovitz work from the 80s and they have a clear look of color film photography. Those images were at that time the role model style for most high end publications. If you would try to push these today I guess not many would be to thrilled about them. So, our eyes has changed, our mind set has changed and nothing wrong with that I guess. Like when the first color images came out, most old school type of hardcore photographers disliked it. That's what Philip Jones Griffiths said during a seminar I attended here in Tokyo some years ago. If it was not in B/W it wasn't a worthy photograph! So just to show you my point and again post up older stuff from my stock, I have here below some photos from Asia where as ONE photo is a digital file. Since 35mm has to be, developed, mounted, scanned and downloaded and I am a really lame photoshopper there are some images with visible dust or even hair (or...), part of the process. Can you my fellow man tell me witch this digital photo is? If you are a follower of this blog you might already have seen it and will then see it clearly...or, maybe it isn't as clear as I have come to view it myself?

Family Suidae a.k.a Sus Domesticus

Just to get going and leave all that bad karma behind (last post), I just wanted to get the diptych going with these 2 frames I snapped during an anti war demonstration some years ago. I think these images speaks for themselves. To be against wars, to be freethinking and exercise your rights to live has never been a popular agenda of the only legal organization free to break the law and get paid to do so..."legal" and "law" suddenly falls under a different lights doesn't it? Well, nothing new I guess...

Dude, gimme a break

After 10 years in Japan I have come to like the place like no where else. Got treated with the same respect as I have treated people and never had any problems...till yesterday!



Me and my buddy were test shooting a new portable lightbox in the tranquility of one of my favorite spots in Tokyo i.e. West Shinjku and Chuo Park yesterday afternoon. Due to Japanese pride, misunderstanding and alcohol ( i.e. a drunk, uneducated Japanese middle age man) we ended up being attacked by this total freakish nut, a true raging mad dog released all his anger and sake vapor on me and at last we all ended up in the Shinjuku Police HQ (B.T.W.F.T.P) and spent more than a couple of hours dealing with this shit. Well, this dude deservedly ended up drenched in his own blood like the pig he is (don't ask me how) as well as had his mobile phone smashed to pieces (don't ask me how) when calling for backup from his possibly more that unfriendly loony park pals. Me being attacked by a complete mental mad man on the loose, I was suddenly to blame and was made out to be the bogeyman in disguise....cute move Sherlock!

I personally don't believe in that you are a guest in a country etc etc, borders, traditions and laws are all man made temporary stuff, deep down we are no more than half smart monkeys (I know, this is hard to hear for some! But according to studies, even a boneless octopus has more brain than the common Homo sapien) puffed up on ego and greed. I have decided to live here in Japan as a citizen of the world and don't feel that I have to live like some underdog due to my genetic background and be at service to the Japanese society, I live here on this Island and I have the right to do so, this is my home at the moment and has been so for 10 years, why not!. I respect people who respect me and keep a low profile, always have. But last night I could see that's not the way a proud overfed detective (BTWFTP) and a mental fuck up park gangster covered in his own internal body fluids looks at it. They do deserve each other, just keep me out next time.

Anyways, life rolls on, just another proof that pigs are pigs and you can dress him and fill him up to the brim with alcohol and self claimed dogma as much it's possible, it's still a pig, always will be!


10-4 over and out!

Window light

The beautiful view of urban megapolis Tokyo, liked the light here though.







#1

70mm 2.8 @ 1/750




#2

70mm 2.8 @ 1/500




#3

50mm 2.8 @ 1/250




The light this afternoon gave me this slight overcast filter tone. The room was bright with a large open glass door letting in just the right amount of light between highlight and shadow an enough balance to make sense. ISO400 was maybe a bit to ask for but works fine on the gear I use. I was shooting three pattern while just changing the shutter with a basic under, over and a mid balanced frame, a classic film bracketing thing.

I got some quite interesting comments on the last portrait below. Please do feel free to give some feedback on this post as well and give me your though in a photographic point of view.

In the shadow of Giants (A field study of Young Sam The Kiwi)

Young Sam was the victim today. The light falling through the skyscrapers we passed in Shinjuku this afternoon was just perfect for portrait photography if you ask me. Something in the reflection of the shitty grey steel and glass that makes the light a soft undertone in the shadow even if the sunny sky is bright blue. I noticed that stone buildings gives you the same effect many times. But the best part with these giants are that they are all in different color tones and often in different materials. There are red(ish) brick imitation, Black steel, matte gray stained aluminum and white(ish) old-school high polished "plastic"...and it's all up to you to find the right one with the right back drop and light tone. Today I found a gap in the facade that I could use for a couple of portraits of Young Sam. He has a pretty strong face, you see that clearly here in these images below. A photographic portrait will many times bring out some features we miss in "real" life. I just have to add, this Kiwi is a fast trasher on that brakeless fixed ride of his, RxKxBx style!

Here are a couple of samples. Please give me some feed back (comment) on which one is the strongest or the weakest, and please, tell me why. I know which one is the strongest and vice versa but would love to hear others opinions as well. 4649!

#1




#2



#3



Used this "gap" as a diffuser of a kind and got the dark back with the light from the right angle even if the light was pretty even and flat.






#4

The art of Seminar & Speech photography

I had the pleasure to shoot an editorial today. Seminars may sound boring and not full of life, but for me as a photographer it's the perfect challenge. To get the best shot under a often quite strict time and light limit and try to blend in, "not be there" and find that angle that makes the whole worthwhile for the situation. I tend to know what I am after and usually the first frames are the best, then after that it's just a repeating process and going over everything once more. I was lucky today because the room this seminar was held in was behind a set of huge floor-to-ceiling windows during a sunny and warm morning light. Shooting mainly with a long lens (70-200mm) but also blending in wide angles when suitable (16-35mm), 2 x 5D with these 2 lenses is a great set up for sure.






Snapped some on the way out from the Peninsula Hotel where todays shooting was done. When in Rome!?

--------NEW WEB PAGE---------

www.mattiaswestfalk.com







Yup, finally after having the same old stuff representing my photography for 5 years on the WWW, I asked a friend to make me a new look and this is what we came up with. The horizontal scrolling is an idea I got from Banksy's page which I really like. The other stuff is just a big mix of what I do and what you (clients) can expect from me a.k.a -mwcp-. Happy days are here again!!!


Thanx you guys for supporting -mwcp-


Designed by Pi, Inc (Katsu Dog)

Engineered by SOY (Inagaki Junichi)





4649

FLJ Magazine

Editor in Cheif, Mr.Toshiya Ohno produces FLJ, a free magazine focusing on Music/Fashion/Culture/ Art. Me and photographer buddy Yoshiki Suzuki got a couple of pages each in last issue. Kind of a look on who we are and what we do. The cool thing was that the portraits for this article of Yoshiki was shot by me and vice versa. Nice collaboration between the two of us, SOFTMACHINE and FLJ.

Come on people, if you want the real deal in photography...this is it. Guys like me and Yoshiki, fighting daily to make something that make sense out of this bloody mess. I am getting tired of the so called street / underground artists in all the hyped up-town "trend" mags in circulation. Junk for rich kids with no identity willing to buy one if the street credentials are set by someone else. If the readers and editors alike only knew what is going on, down on the asphalt, then they would see something quite different. I know I am a noisy-all time bitching no-good-for-nothing-looser white trash... at least I know who I am, and that is why I am still on the asphalt doing my thing.

It's all up to you, but I strongly recommend to open up your eyes!

KADENS - Bikemag from Sweden -

A 6 page article about the recent street cycle scene going on in Tokyo, based on ideas from the Road Kill Bikers (RxKxBx) as well as a Q&A from 5 bike shops and builders in Tokyo, shops I use for my private cycling life in the city. I very seldom write in Swedish so this proved to be a good experience, dusted off my old dictionary, back to the mother tongue. Was great to see that the editors gave me so much space for this article and used a nice composition of images. I always send more images than I know the magazines can use, to give them the freedom and choice to make something out of it all that suite the local market. What goes in Tokyo might not go in Stockholm.

Check it out, KADENS

Salvation Mt

Salvation Mountain. A piece of D.I.Y art/stoic do-what-I-want "thing" in the middle of no where near the half dead Salton Sea in Southern california. Being a huge fan of stoner rock legends Kyuss and have seen that really cool band shot from one of the album jackets, this place has been on my mind ever since and I always wanted to go here. I was driving down highway 111 to Niland one summer day in June last year with nothing more in mind than a cold drink, something to eat. The diner we (me and my brother JEREMY) stopped at had a couple of locals and the waitress asked us if we been up to Salvation Mt yet? That it was close by this outpost (nothing on any map of mine) just made sense and after lunch we had found "it" a couple of miles up a small hidden dirt road. Napoleon Knight welcomed us and guided us around without asking who we were and why we came to see him. Genuine in all aspects, friendly to the bone this Knight fella. I've been traveling in many countries and seen things that is hard to imagine for the untrained shoestringer, Salvation Mt is one of these places. Not that the "monument of love / God" is that mind blowing in it self, it's more that wholeness of it all. Mr Knight and his belief that love is the cure for everythign, the desert, the old dusty diner down the road and the Chocolate Mountains (a gunnery range for the war mongers) in the background. The wholeness of the atmosphere made the day a day to remember forever.

Geek Outing

Spent the whole day with my buddy UA, shooting street and going from one hot camera store to another, scanning what's out there. Decided that a 5D MarkII is on the list as well as a portable lightbox with radio slaves for travel portrait photography etc. Ended up at Tower Records well stocked photo book corner drooling over what should be sitting firm in our own private book shelves.

OGRE in Meguro

Another cool gig by metal maniacs OGRE JAPAN. Was shooting 15mm fullframe with a "narrow" flash setting, as well as 300mm for the "live" portraits. Meguro Live Station (the venue) proved to have quite a nice light setting with red and blue dominating. This mixed with the brutal sound of OGRE gave a fine result...the gig was fast, loud and furious...the way it should be!

Thanx OGRE for having me. Looking forward to nest gig.

Uncle Allan a.k.a. Onkel Allan

Good friend and fellow world traveller Allan is in town and guest working at INK RAT tattoo studio in Koenji. These people are really on the right track of their profession and are able to take things to a new and highlighted level. Always a pleasure to hang out with these guys.

Allan is a dedicated camera / photography geek on the side of his tattooing so we have lots to discuss and ponder over. Since our photographic styles differ some I feel that I still have lost to learn (will never end I hope) and that there are so many ways we see and functioning within what we love/hate in photography.

Check his blog HERE







Dinner with the INK RAT / UA crew, what a feast (Osaka style!)

TOSHIKAZU NOZAKA art exhibition

I was invited by Nozaka and went over to check out his Mystic Wave III exhibition @ Gallery 12. Multitalented Nozaka (Skater/Tattooist/Painter) is a really nice guy and I love when people keep up the spirit of their own art whatever happens around them.

Usugrow

My friend Usugrow is working on a new book and I was asked if I wanted to shoot the start/end inside cover. This is a big honor for me since I in first hand really like and respect him as a person, as then on that think his artwork is just great. The weather was cold but luckily no rain since I wanted to shoot outside. The clouds diffusing the light just right and shooting in B/W gave us a pretty good result. This one image will be a big spread so the midsection will take some of the composition away but I think we found the right "mood" and feel for Usugrows artwork/attitude. So look out for his new book in the bookstores in a near future.

Check his stuff HERE!!.

Just a small sample of what was done today. Thanx Satoshi for helping out!

Suzuki Yoshiki A.K.A Noploblem

Hooked up with my brothers from SOFTMACHINE again. This time for a collaboration with photographer Yoshiki Suzuki for a spread in FLJ (A free Underground Fashion Magazine?). I really like Yoshikis photography, he knows how to use his camera and can with a straight and simple way produce the most powerful images. This aspect of shooting and seeing photography really appeals to me. An honor to be buddies with these guys. Photography (and friendship) like this is priceless, has no boundaries.



Yoshiki will have a join exhibition with SOFTMACHINE on April 3rd near Roppongi, be sure to be there.





This is the shot that will be used in FLJ. The image Yoshiki took of me will be next to this.....cool. Using almost the exact gear, the images are light years apart....nice project!

Photo Journalism

Really great photojournalism here : BIG PICTURE

Just saw (again) James Nachtwey's unbelievable documentary "War Photographer". Is that maybe the route to take for a meaningful way in photography? I start to believe more and more that it is.

TOTAL LACERATION -OGRE JAPAN-

Congratulation OGRE JAPAN, well done, New CD out!!!!

Another really cool news in world of metal, OGRE JAPAN just came out with a new CD full of unbelievable tight packed death/trash/speed metal. I found out about this band not long ago and they have become one of my favorite band for sure. This is what metal is all about i.e. Do Or Die / Live your life.



Band photo by -mwcp-, turned out just fine.

This how the original looked like

N.W.O.B.H.M. -SURVIVE-

Tokyo metal band SURVIVE played at live venue MISSION last night and I went over there to meet the guys and shoot the band again, was a while since I saw then so it was great. Even if a short gig, last night was packed with old school metal, nice!!

Kamera&Bild

Swedish pro photo magazine Kamera&Bild featured my photography on a 10 page reportage in issue #2 2009. This article was written by Matti Sedholm who came over to Tokyo last summer and spent a couple of days with me here. Check September 2008's post HERE.













Fun to see some exposure of ones work and in a Swedish magazine on top of that, my mother tongue! Makes you strive harder to keep up a high quality of work as well as explore new grounds. It was interesting to see what the editors of K&B chose from all the images I sent. I was really happy to see that my B/W elephant images got so big space and the travel photography I have dome for different publications also was the main look, but also I wish there were some more fashion and studio light shots. I guess they tapped the part of mwcp that forms the essential.
Man, there is so much to shoot out there, so many places to visit and collect memories and different worlds in forms of images. Next up is San Jose/San Francisco (arranged a bicycle to get around in a proper manner), Long Beach C.A as well as Death Valley and Yosemite National Park in June for a couple of weeks.
I will take a look of the street scene in SF/SJ, mainly the "fixed gear" part of it all, then cover a tattoo convention on Queen Mary in Long Beach as well as head out in the wild and get lost in Death Valley and the surrounding desert, this is all part of a photo story I started a couple of years ago. Will be hauling both digital and medium format gear with me this time (rental car, no worries), was a long time since I was shooting film professionally so that's something I am looking forward to. Lost of gear to carry and keep an eye on.

Fullframe 15mm on a Friday night...

Spent Friday night riding the streets of Shinjuku looking for stuff to shoot for an upcoming project. Some days are just not meant to be behind a camera though. I had everything pretty figured out in my head but when I was on location it just didn't work out the way I wanted. Shooting with a fisheye (15mm fullframe) for a couple of hours before I gave up. I ended up with these 2 frames that I liked, the rest is doomed as files on a harddrive probably never to be opened again. But, hey...2 frames is better than no frame so pretty pleased with my Friday night after all. What else is there to do on a cold Friday night in Tokyo? Well, ride your bike, explore and shoot from top floors of deserted office buildings is one. Mingle with the party minded minions has never interested me.



I like the reflection on the glass window, time and space.

Light Houses Of The Pacific Coast USA

Now when the LightHouse story is out (WingSpan) it's time to post some of the images here. I was traveling with writer Tony McNicol and his texts always makes the articles really great. Here are some that got published and some that wasn't. Had burgers first meal after arriving in San Francisco.

Canonian

I just had to post this one I found on the net. Too cool...

Portrait

B/W














A self portrait for my new web page that will be ready pretty soon. Dark & hidden... this is how I see myself (?). Having some difficulties with portraying this one and need to take a longer look to see what's there, too personal in a way. People probably see me as a easygoing and fun character, sorry to disappoint you people. But this is the real deal I see in the images of my self taken by myself (...interesting!). I rather be this guy, the real guy, than some smiling jerk staring into the camera....looking......friendly.....WTF!? What's with the ear? I don't know, why not, just liked the image.

You people who knows me, please let me know what you think...comments below.

-m-

New Books

If I would say that I have a passion for something, like a need or in a way...obsession, then it is towards photobooks, well...books in general. So today was a good day. First Annie Leibowitz "At Work" was delivered. I am a big fan of her photography. Got this book from a tip from photographer Yasu Nakaoka who met her in New York once. Second to arrive today was my "own" photobook. Well, with the help of Pi,Inc we got it together and made one sample issue. Turned out really cool and the contrast and colors was in right place as well as the paper quality. This photo-story is about the Mt.Everest trail that I walked last November. More stuff is coming later this year, stay tuned.







Pi, Inc - Thanks for everyhting!