ENTRY DESCRIPTION
8 year old Rikuto Amadu is half Japanese, half Kenyan. I photographed him in Tokyo after interviewing him about being mixed Japanese and Kenyan.

At the end of the interview, just like every person in my Hafu2Hafu project, I asked him what question he wanted to ask others with similar backgrounds, his family, friends or schoolmates.

His question was: "Why are we more lighthearted around other hafu (or mixed roots Japanese people)?"

AUTHOR
Netherlands based Japanese - Belgian portrait and event photographer.

After a life in advertising and creative communications, I decided to pick up my camera for a full time photography career at 37.

Growing up in a mixed roots home (Japanese father and Belgian mother), I have always referred to myself as half Japanese, half Belgian, or 'hafu' as we are often called in Japan.

After the birth of my first daughter in 2016, I decided to compare my experiences with fellow Japanese hāfu. My goal was to find people with one Japanese and one non Japanese parent from 192 different countries in order to project a 'full range' image of what it means to be mixed Japanese.

This resulted in Hāfu2Hāfu; a photographic project in which I investigate what it means to be hāfu. By portraying and interviewing other hāfu and by sharing their unique identity related question to you – the viewer – we create a dialogue about identity and stimulate self-reflection.

When I don't work on this ongoing photo project, I shoot commercial or corporate portraits and events.

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