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"Combining photographs and drawings, I call my early works 'photo illustrations.'"
My father, uncle, and several other family members were graphic designers, so I initially wanted to be one, too. But I gave up that idea in high school when I realized that you needed to have a real talent for sketching if you expected to make it as a designer. Up until that point, I hadn't really taken many photographs, but since photography is closely related to the design industry, it seemed a logical choice.
After graduating from university, I worked at a production company for about a year before being hired as an assistant to the photographer Hideki Fujii. His style leaned towards the artistic, and I found myself strongly drawn to it. This is reflected in what I call "photo illustrations," works that combine photographs and drawings.
After about six years with Mr. Fujii, I went freelance in 1987. I was mainly shooting commercial photos for advertisements at the time, but I continued working on my photo illustrations, which is what I really wanted to do. I'd become a photographer, but somewhere in the back of my mind I still had the desire to be a designer. Then, 10 years or so after I'd gone freelance, digital cameras appeared. Up until then, when I worked with film cameras, the results always seemed similar to Mr. Fujii's pieces. But with digital cameras, I found my work going in new directions, and I immediately took to them. Since then, I've created most of my works using Adobe® Photoshop®, which requires considerable investment in equipment, and even more on cameras. For me, a digital camera is merely a tool for initial data input, after which processing becomes the major focus.
I have put a great deal of effort into the study of digital technologies. My basic stance is to take full responsibility up to and including digital processing, so that when I finish a piece, it is completely ready for printing.
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