I had a few days in Japan post-assignment, where I stayed in Tokyo with a friend, and wandered without agenda. Nowhere feels as foreign to me as Japan. I have been fascinated by the culture for years; and being there, understanding so little, created a wonderful environment for photographing. I am more used to working in developing countries, where being white and carrying a camera often has the effect of creating a spectacle, drawing a crowd. In Japan I felt invisible, and the world around me took on the feeling of the ‘floating world’ of the Ukiyo-e: the beautiful Japanese woodblock prints I have spent years looking at, and which fed into my photography on this particular trip.
