For me, taking photographs is a way of being there in the moment, of being alive on this planet. I hope the pictures I take capture imagination. Like questions, that make you wonder what is going on here. Yet I also see photography as the fifth and possibly final stage in my art journey.

1) Art school and conceptual art stage

The first stage began in art school at San Francisco Art Institute in the early 1990s, I focused on a form of conceptual art and installation that looked at the phenomenon of seeing and being in the moment. I was influenced by predecessors like Allen Kaprow and Robert Irwin. After graduating, I moved to Japan and continued pursuing this work in small galleries while creating participatory art installations. My themes varied but they mainly revolved around shared happenings such as experiencing the Hyogo earthquake or drinking Osaka water.

2) Net.art  and digital art stage
After years of this studio work, a second phase began as I suddenly discovered the emerging internet and began creating “net art” from the point of online installations combining photos, animation, text, audio, and code. Without hesitation, I switched to digital art and constructed a series of experiences under the art site Opus Soup, sitting on my tatami mat floor apartment in Osaka.

3) Digital design stage
After a short stint getting an MFA in computer art at the School of Visual Art, I dropped out after realizing the Dotcom boom was happening on the West Coast and I became more interested in supporting my young family. Using what I learned from creating art online, I started my third creative stage as a digital designer, working at agencies in San Francisco and Tokyo. I eventually came back to SF to co-found a design studio with a friend. Eventually, this led to my current career as a design director at Adobe.

4) Virtual art stage
At some stage, a new media emerged called Second Life, and I was drawn to creating island-size interactive installations in this virtual world and game. Under the handle Juria Yoshikawa (a female avatar), I collaborated with musicians to create digital performances that allowed viewers to fly through them and at times join in as their avatars became part of the art. This fourth stage was linked to my first with audience participation being important.

5) Photographic art stage
Now, 35 years later, and in my fifth creative stage, photography has taken a powerful hold over me. What began as my wish to dabble in film photography, has now turned into a full-fledged obsession with discovering the unseen in the world. I was inspired by the work of Rinko Kawauchi, Saul Leiter, Curran Hatleberg, and William Eggleston. I believe I am participating in a tradition of picture-making as a means of searching for treasure in everyday life. 

I am interested in the process of experiencing the world fully, differently, and poetically. Or maybe it’s just about being there to catch that moment when I stand in the right place and my camera frame translates it to something I’ve never seen before – a collaboration between myself, the camera, and the world.