Connection and Expressing the Inner Self | 10 Questions for Masamiya Hikaru | ISSUE #2

My mother is Chinese, my father is Australian, and I was born and raised as a Japanese in Tokyo (laughs). Now, I'm an art director and designer based in Tokyo, working on a brand called 'aesthesia'.

I loved drawing since I was little and was apparently famous for drawing everywhere (laughs). After graduating high school, I traveled around the world as a backpacker. That experience connects to my current work.

The trigger for my world trip was during a midterm test in high school.

During the test, I stopped my pen and looked at my classmates from the back seat. Of course, everyone was solving the same test in the same uniform, in the same posture.

Knowing the individuality and inner beauty of everyone in front of me, the situation seemed amusing, and I felt a fear that living according to the 'laid rails' system might lead to losing individuality.

I thought it would be more interesting if everyone answered in their own way (laughs).

From that experience, when I thought about my path with a broad perspective, I concluded that I wanted to know values, cultures, and worlds I didn't know, not just Japan, and decided to 'go out into the world!' even though I couldn't speak English at all.
Thanks to that, I learned that 'values' are countless depending on place, culture, and environment, and that thinking can change 180 degrees when going to another country, while on the contrary, the essence doesn't change anywhere in the world.

During my world trip, I worked as a fashion journalist, taking street fashion snaps and sneaking into overseas fashion weeks as an amateur photographer (laughs).

From that time, I started going to fashion, art, and photo exhibitions.

As for photography, I was shocked by the 'So Far So Goude' exhibition by Jean-Paul Goude in Milan, Italy, when I was 20, wondering where such ideas come from.

That is a memorable experience in the realm of photography.

I don't have a memory of taking my first photo. I think I was taking photos before I became aware.

Because my mother always carried a camera, I probably took photos before it became a memory.

But I definitely loved drawing when I was young.

Even now, I perceive photography as a technical thing, and I might have an engineer-like sense. It's mechanical, too.

Abstractly, photography is 'capturing the outside', and drawing is 'emitting the inside'.

Therefore, when looking through the camera's viewfinder, I might be expressing through a sense of seeing a drawing, not cutting out the outside scenery.

I've always thought about how a photo can be sublimated into a drawing.

Unless it's a crafted piece, I'm not very particular about equipment.

I sometimes shoot videos for work, but I often cut frames from videos to make photos.

This is because I like the unique texture of films and feel that cutting out parts of a video as photos captures a more continuous flow. Perhaps creating photos from videos is my preference (laughs). Ultimately, both are frames.

For video cameras, I mainly use the 'Pocket Cinema Camera' from 'Blackmagic', an Australian manufacturer.

For everyday photography, I like 35mm film instant cameras. I care about texture, but not much about the manufacturer.

I think 'naturalness and ease' are important for everyday cameras, quickly pulling them out of my pocket to capture the moment on the spot.
Looking back, I think I was influenced by Hiroyuki Koshikawa, a photographer I met in Ukraine during my world trip, who took photos of me.

I also had a 35mm camera called 'MINOLTA Riva ZOOM', which I found at an antique shop during my world trip, but it broke when I returned from the trip, so now I use a 'Canon autoboy 3' as my second camera.

I've liked Londrelle, who is also a poet, since before he became famous, and I've been listening to him a lot recently.
What I like about him is that his lyrics and content haven't changed fundamentally in the last five years. It taught me why fundamentally good things don't fade away.

I've also been revisiting the album 'Sunday Service' produced by Kanye West, and I listen to Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and AOKI TAKAMASA's music while working.

Classical music helps me focus, and I recommend everyone try it (laughs).

When creating works, I'm so absorbed that I don't think about imitating someone. I feel that many past experiences that inspired me are reflected in the current moment.

It's like a personal rule to faithfully reproduce the desire to express the inner self.

However, rather than specific individuals, I often get inspiration by tracing history.

For example, when I wanted to take a portrait like those displayed in music rooms, I traced the history of portraits.

When it came to taking portraits, I wanted to find the first person who popularized portraits through photography, and I found out that a French photographer named Nadar popularized it in the 1850s.

Nadar continued to take portraits of famous people and artists of the time in his Paris photo studio. Interestingly, Monet and Cézanne, popular Impressionist painters in Japan, borrowed Nadar's studio for their first exhibition, which became the starting point of the famous Impressionist art movement. Everything connects.

Also, while drone aerial photography is common now, it's said that Nadar was the first to take aerial photos with a balloon. It's fascinating that the pioneer of both portrait and aerial photography is the same person.

Tracing history is interesting because you can learn things you didn't know.

When I was in Paris, I visited Nadar's studio address, but unfortunately, the site was no longer there (laughs).

I want to try using a 35mm film camera called 'Kyocera TD'.
It has a 'Carl Zeiss Tessar T*' lens, and the texture of the photos is good, and I simply like its appearance.

Also, although it's a luxury item, I've always been interested in the 'LEICA minilux'.
It's a rare camera loved by many because its price increases every year, making it the cheapest if you buy it now.

For people, I like photos taken at the moment when there's a connection with the person's heart.

The moment when there's a sensory connection, meaning when the subject is in their true form. I like situations where they show their true selves, and I'm naturally drawn in.

This is hard to express in words (laughs).

For landscapes, I like photographing buildings overseas. Capturing something that has existed in the same place for a long time, much longer than I've lived, makes me feel like I'm part of its history.

Doing things you think are 'uncool', whether it's yourself or others, by compromising.

That's when an artist's nature or humanity shows.

I have many designer acquaintances, so I mostly receive or get sent clothes from them (laughs).

Sometimes we barter products we make. Because they're acquaintances, they sometimes tweak the design to suit my taste. They're people who love creating, so they're happy to listen, and it might even become an idea for a new collection.

Also, I'm not very good at choosing from predetermined shop clothes.

I'm someone who shoots based on feeling, so settings depend a lot on the situation. Of course, weather and environment, but also how the world looks based on my mood that day.

However, I like doing manual focus as a sense.

Finally, a bit of a clumsy story (laughs).

During my world trip, I actually took a Nikon DSLR, but the backpacker lifestyle was wild, and the bag got bumped, or sand got in when camping on the beach, so the autofocus stopped working midway.

I couldn't afford a new lens, so I had to shoot manually.

At first, it was hard to get used to shooting moments I wanted to capture quickly with manual focus, but after a year and a half, it became natural. Then, surprisingly, I realized the button was just stiff, and it wasn't broken (laughs).

But once I got used to it, it was convenient, and I was convinced of the freedom of manual focus.

Professionals probably use manual focus as a basic, but thanks to this experience, I naturally acquired the sense of manual focus, which I consider lucky.

If I'm particular about creating, I want to focus on manual aspects in everything.

I believe the indescribable 'something' that makes art art comes from such small details. They say God is in the details (laughs).