PHOTOGRAPHER HAL | |
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Photographer Hal!!I am Photographer Hal. I was born in Tokyo, Japan and I reside in Tokyo. I am a photographer seeking to find a new dimension in portrait works. [Background] In my university days, I was starving for encountering people and I had traveled across the world, the Middle East and India. It was at that time when I came across photography. I took photographs of people and the scenery that came into my view while traveling. Camera was the best communication tool for a shy and poor talker like myself!! Also, the photographs remained as a piece of work and I realized they were evidence of my presence. Shortly, I became interested in the possibility of the photography and my interest grew in commercial and art photographs. After graduating the university, I joined an advertisement production company in Tokyo as a photographer to acquire photographic skills. I have been taking photographs of celebrities for corporate and fashion models for department store advertisings as my works. I learned photography through the aforementioned trips I took and from the jobs at the production company. [Theme] As you know, the grand theme of mankind is Love. And I, Photographer Hal, am challenging the majestic theme!! [Objects] Sadly, humans to this very day have repeated segregation and discrimination. Peace will not realize until such acts are stopped. You who are standing on the earth, no matter where you are, love the person in front of you. From two people to a group, from a town to a community, from a swarm to a country, and across the boarder? ring of Love shall prevail. I have started to create my ring of Love in the city of Tokyo, believing that some day a world peace without segregation and discrimination will come true. And yes, “couple” is the best medium to express the theme of Love. I become the voyager of encounter and search for the models in underground scenes such as night clubs and bars in luscious beehive at night in Tokyo like Kabuki-cho in Shinjuku and Shibuya, where the love of couples come to surface. As soon as I find my “couple”, I negotiate them to be my model. The models are from all walks of life - musician, dancer, stripper, laborer, manager of a restaurant and bar, photographer, businessman, unsettled and unemployed, and so forth. They open their hart to an onlooker like me and so the shooting begins. Often times, the cruise were joyful happy moments - some even got married after the shooting. On the other hand, sometimes the cruise made bad weather - no-show couple and disengaged couple disagreeing to have their pictures released. Once, one of the couple was jailed after the shooting and I had difficulty in obtaining his consent. I photograph various mixtures of “couples” such as of young and old, of the same and opposite sex, and of different races. I find the diverse relationship of different people emerging from the “couple” interesting. However, the emergent relationships become my work because they were captured in my photographs. The works were compiled into two series of photo books and were released under the titles of Pinky & Killer and Pinky & Killer DX. [Photographic Style] In order to emerge and capture love of the “couple”, I used to corner the models in small and enclosed room in my earlier exploration. However, extending this idea to the extreme, I now place them in a bathtub of their house. The bathroom is the most private place in the house for most couples, and they feel shy about it. That is why it is so inspiring!! Bathtub is an ideal vessel to hold a couple. I compress the couple into the bottom of a bathtub and ask them to express themselves. It is like high school girls in Tokyo taking self-portraits in an instant photo sticker machine booth, “print club”!! Intensity of vivid color, like highly boiled jam, provides tonality best suited for the photograph. I regard this to be a microcosm of intensified energy. The work is now in progress - Couples(tentative) series. [Recent Projects] In August, I plan to complete and publish a new photo book entitled Couples(tentative) and hold solo exhibitions in Tokyo. It is my desire henceforth to spread the works and name of Photographer Hal globally - With Love !! [Accomplishments] Publications Selected solo exhibition Selected group exhibition >>to top C O N T A C T |
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Copyrht ig2006 PHOTOGRAPHER HAL. |