ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Ueda Shoji on My Mind

Born near Yonago City, Ueda Shoji had an natural a nity with art from a young age. At 19 years old he opened a successful photo studio in his home town. Married with a 4 children he began shooting portraits of his family at the Tottori Sand Dunes; what started as personal work would expand into a decades long series. Ueda Shoji would continue to revisit the dunes for the remainder of his long career.

His photos today have had such an impact in my life; I’ve longed to visit Mr. Ueda’s dunes and made it a life long goal to
visit the desert one day. In the summer of 2019, my ancee and I drove through Western Japan on a week long road trip. Out of the many destinations on our route; we spent the day under the sun among the sand and salty air of the dunes.

-Kotaro Kawashima
Reiwa Year One .

AUTHOR
Born in Matsudo City (North of Tokyo) my mother, sister, and I found ourselves aboard a plane to Jamaica where my father was waiting for us. Being expats for a Japanese Coffee Company, I spent my early childhood among the coffee farms of the Blue Mountains. Our family was uprooted once again when my father was transferred to manage a Kona Coffee Plantation on the Big Island of Hawai’i. At 19 I left the islands and headed to the Mainland to study Theatre in Portland,OR.

Upon graduating in 2004, I returned to Japan and taught English in Tokyo for 2 years before coming to New York in 2006. I started my photo career as an intern at Management Artists (MAO) and Tom Munro, to eventually making my way on set as a digital tech; however after 6 years I hit a wall and left teching to solely focus on photo assisting for the next 3 years.

As of 2017 I am a full-time assistant to Mario Sorrenti.

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