In Japan, photography often feels less like content creation and more like devotion to a very specific way of seeing the world.
Today, I wanted to share that world with you from my own lens, and through the voice of a rising photographer in Japan, Meiya.
Inside Japan’s Photography Obsession
You can see it in the lines for purikura booths at arcades. In the stylists and apparel workers walking through Harajuku with their models – giant lenses hanging from their shoulders like artistic weapons.
Even the sales of disposable cameras have been on the rise in Japan since 2019.
And, most of all, you can see it in the massive sections at the bookstore dedicated to gravure idols and niche photo collections.
I remember getting lost in these photography collections (called shashinshu in japanese) as a teen. The kind of wacky themes that I could have never thought up myself – photographs of the daily lives of cats, shots of the different kinds of vending machines scattered across the city, even ones dedicated to snaps of office ladies eating huge plates of food (???) – every photographer seemed consumed by their own tiny obsession.
In just 30 or so pages, you can be completely engulfed in a different world.
I’ve always wondered about the inner thoughts of a photographer in Japan.
From the careful creation of worlds to the competitive nature of being surrounded by talented photographers, I took a deeper look into the mindset and what photography means to someone building a career inside it.
A Photographer’s View of The World
The charm and beauty belong to the subject, not to me, and I try never to forget that.
I’m excited to share this interview with my friend Meiya, a young photographer in Japan preparing to release his first photo collection.
We spoke about the worlds he captures through his work, the emotional responsibility he feels toward the people he photographs, and why photography matters so deeply to him in the first place.
Meiya also shared some of his live concert photography along with his thoughts on photographing bands and performers. I hope you’ll enjoy this rare peek into the perspective of a rising photographer shaping his own place within Japan’s photography scene.
Q: What drives you to take photographs?
I mainly photograph people for my work, and there is something I always keep in mind when I shoot.
When I photograph women, I often ask myself: Would this be a photograph she could take with her as part of her wedding trousseau? I want to take photographs that she could someday show her children and say, “This is what your mother was like when she was young. This is the kind of life she lived.”
Sometimes, when I work with magazines, directors ask for something more provocative because they believe it will sell better.
However, I usually decline those kinds of requests. I want the photographs to remain something the person can be proud of later in life.
When I photograph men, my perspective changes a little. In that case, I often think about whether the photograph could someday be used as a memorial portrait.
I ask myself, If something were to happen to this person one day, would this be a photograph their family could choose for that purpose?
Of course, I do use standard compositions and poses when needed, but I always try to capture a moment that truly feels like that person.
Q: What kind of relationship does photography have with your personal artistic expression?
I tend to think of myself not as a “photographic artist,” but more as a “photographer” in the practical sense. A photographic artist expresses something from within themselves. In music terms, I feel closer to the role of a recording director.
I ask the artist to give a good performance, and my job is to record that performance properly. In the same way, I believe my role is simply to document the person in front of me. The charm and beauty belong to the subject, not to me, and I try never to forget that.
Q: What themes do you like to capture with your camera?
Because I was born and raised in Japan, the idea of “Japanese sensibility” naturally forms a central axis of my work. If I want to present my work to the world, I feel that this perspective is essential.
So I hope to make photographs that people from outside Japan can appreciate, while at the same time still feeling meaningful and beautiful to people in Japan.
Q: When is a photograph “successful” to you?
I don’t really believe there are good photographs and bad photographs, or successful ones and failed ones.
Of course, when photography is work, documentation matters, so something like a completely out-of-focus image could be considered a failure.
But in everyday photography, I don’t really think that way. The reason is simple: we take photographs because we feel like taking them.
We press the shutter because something feels worth capturing in that moment. Even if the image is blurred or slightly out of focus, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been taken.
For example, I’m not married and I don’t have children yet, but if I did, and my child suddenly ran toward me while I was taking a photo and caused the image to blur, I think I would still find that photograph beautiful.
It’s a bit like looking at a school yearbook. Even if the person you had your first crush on appears very small in the photo, you can still spot them immediately.
Q: Does photographing bands feel different from shooting your usual, more natural themes?
Yeah, I definitely feel a difference!
When the music reaches its peak and the crowd starts raising their hands and getting more excited, I naturally want to capture that atmosphere and energy in the photos too.
And of course, since I’m listening to the music while shooting, it gets me excited as well.
A live show only happens once, right? There’s no “oops, we messed up, let’s start the song over again” or anything like that.
That’s why it feels like both the performers and I are each giving it our one shot in that moment. So I get more nervous than usual, but at the same time, I feel like I can understand the emotions of the performers a little better.
Maybe “understand” isn’t exactly the right word, but I hope it comes across that I’m facing that moment with the same kind of feeling they are.
If you would like to reach out, see more photos, or talk to Meiya about his work, you can find him on Instagram and reach out directly by e-mail.
His work is amazing, and I had so much fun getting to see and hear about his experiences.
Meiya also started a Youtube channel to feature his photography and share info about his lenses. He recently uploaded a video from KYOTOGRAPHIE, a yearly international photography festival in Kyoto.
Here is the video interview he did with the designer of this very beautiful camera strap (I don’t own a camera, but now I want this..):
Until next time!
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