Philosophy
Beyond Perfect Shot
What fascinates me is the interplay of light and shadow, and the visual transformations they create through reflection, transparency, and overlapping layers.
A single moment never exists in isolation. Past and present, light and darkness, surface and depth, the visible and the invisible are always intertwined.
What I aim to capture in my photographs is this complexity of overlapping layers. For example, reflections on glass, silhouettes behind curtains, the shimmer of light on rain-soaked pavement, and the intersections of humanity, nature, and the built environment.
I feel the world is never still; it emerges through layers of perspectives, textures, and meanings that continuously fold into one another.
Photography, to me, is not merely the recording of landscapes or subjects. It is about preserving the fleeting moment where intention and chance converge to reveal a singular expression.
The world is composed of infinite layers, each concealing a new perspective. To find and frame these fragments, I press the shutter to record light. ■
My Camera
Compact without compromise
RICOH GR Series
I want to capture fragments of life unfolding on the street. For that purpose, the most important factor in choosing a camera has always been portability. It has to fit in my pocket and be ready to shoot anytime, anywhere.
Put simply, what matters most is that the moment is captured, more than image quality or composition. Being able to keep the camera at hand, always ready to release the shutter, is essential. Still, having satisfying image quality is reassuring.
The only camera that fulfills these conditions is the RICOH GR series.
In particular, the “Full Press Snap” function allows me to capture at a preset distance instantly, ensuring that no moment slips away. When I feel the urge to shoot, I can press the shutter without hesitation. This speed is indispensable.
The fixed 28mm focal length also feels natural to me. The more I use it, the more it becomes an extension of how I see.
Smartphones have advanced rapidly, yet I often feel that software processing interferes with recording what my eyes actually perceive. I want to preserve light as it is, nothing more and nothing less.
What matters most to me is to press the shutter, no matter the circumstance. With the GR series, I will continue to capture those fleeting moments where light, shadow, and chance intersect. ■
“What the photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”
-Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, Chapter 1 “The Difficulty of Studying Photography”
View my GR III custom settings for street photography
Record
Difference and Repetition
Why I Compile My Photographs into a Portfolio
Taking photographs and organizing them feel almost equivalent to me. I select from countless images, adjust the tones, and publish them. Only through this process does a photograph finally take form.
Many of the positive films I shot in the days of analog cameras still lie dormant in storage. Before the rise of digital technology, there was no easy way to share them. Printing was expensive, and without being developed, those slides remain asleep, as if they do not exist in this world at all.
By organizing, selecting, and publishing what I shoot, I record them. Through continuing this same process, subtle differences begin to appear. Those minute variations emerge only within repetition. Repetition is not a matter of doing the same thing again, but an act that reveals difference.
To record is to continue that movement.
Even while maintaining the same format, my perception changes each time I look. It is not the photographs that change, but myself who observes them. I keep recording in order to trace that transformation. ■
“Repetition changes nothing in the object repeated,
but does change something in the mind which contemplates it.”-Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition
(trans. Paul Patton, Columbia University Press)
Profile
K｜The Tokyo Snap
Tokyo Based Enthusiast Photographer
Interested in architecture and urbanism
For general inquiries or collaboration opportunities, please contact me via The Tokyo Snap X DM