end provides a clue; it functions as a wake-up call, but in general people like to be cheated by those mountains, so I think I’ll leave it out if there’s a new edition.
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Do you feel that your work is part of a Japanese tradition of photog raphy? The predominant style of photography in Tokyo is still the snapshot aesthetic. Still too many young photographers are following the example of Daido Moriyama and the like. Many are epigones, just copy copy copy. It’s so boring. I don’t want to imitate that much, although I’m also influenced by other photographers like Wolfgang Tillmans or Ryan McGinley. These influences also help me to introduce a new mindset to challenge the traditional Japanese views. You told me you were in Amster dam recently. Did you take any photographs there? Oh yes, I took many pictures of bicycles. Also of garbage bins because they look cute and funny. On my first day in Amsterdam I clashed with a cyclist and then I decided to focus on bicycles. But these photos are just snapshots for my ‘sketchbook’. Perhaps my experiences in Amsterdam will become an influence but the bicycle pictures won’t become a project on their own. •
All images © Yuji Hamada Yuji Hamada (b.1979, Japan) graduated from the Department of Photography in Nihon University in 2003. His works have been exhibited widely in Japan, US, Canada and Italy, and he won a number of inter national prizes. He lives and works between Tokyo and London.
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