dance
A few weeks ago I took a stroll around Grand Central terminal with New York Dancer Mindy. Such a pleasure to work with this person. Can you guess where my favorite spot was out of this entire shoot? Hint, it’s for some strange reason, at a very minimalist area XD.
Images on Portra 160.
xo,
Masumi
I can’t wait to travel for a shoot again.
XO
M Kat
I'm starting with a side thought, because this is my space.
In this commercialized world, we are often pushed to think about what attire to wear on our bodies. Clothes can help accentuate who we are and also serve as an outward expression of us. Oftentimes it does. What I love about dance is that our souls with our bodies are at that podium. When it comes to dance and attire, in my opinion less is more. When shooting with somebody I want to have the dancer's core speak. I want their soul, working in unison with their body to whisper, shout, cry, mumble, rejoice. The clothes should not constrict the dancer unless it is particularly supposed to.
Moving onto movement.
Make it Subtle.
When it comes to dance and modeling, I often see big, grand movements. Those are lovely in and of itself, but I prefer to ask the audience to notice the smaller, more subtle motions that are being displayed to have them really focus on the person, to listen to what they are saying.
When a viewer sees a photo, my goal is to have them ask, "why is that girl's hand flopping downward?" "Why is she looking at the hand?" "Why is she looking away?" This of course, all in attempt to have somebody be in the present moment, which is something I personally strive to do more often. As a person who has anxiety, my mind is always in the future, so I love moments where I get to be in the present.
Cheers,
Masumi
Hello again.
It's already mid-February. Time has already flown by, and I thought the year had just started. This year commenced with many photo opportunities such as visiting Japan, client gigs and personal work. Thankfully I just recently I have finished up editing most of the images!
On my recent trip back to the white studio, I got to bring in a lovely wooden block (thank you Forge Parkour) and had my dancer get on top of it. The following was the result. I wanted to test out my semi-newly acquired medium format lens in the studio.
Japan blog posts coming soon.
M Kat
A few months ago I had the privilege of shooting with contemporary dancer Nikki Leopold. For those who already know my shooting style, we started off by dancing improv to some music. Many dancers have lovely movement but there was something extremely different with Nikki. Moments within her dancing, I started to feel emotional. Her movement demonstrated something that deeply moved me. It was unfeigned kindness. Accepting of pain that may be received, yet understanding of circumstances, still kind.
That is what I love about improv - to me it is the open door to showing you who are. At least for myself when dancing improv, though my technique may often lack my emotions are expressed, putting heart into movement. I appreciated her demonstrating her genuine self. As a photographer it is my job to photograph the beauty of somebody's authenticity and to have viewers feel what I feel. To see the beauty that I see.
The images from this session made such an impression upon me that I wanted to create a book of it for my photo show that came around the next month. Sadly it did not work out but I hope that you enjoy the photos. I hope that you can feel the kindness that I felt that day.
Masumi
Portland has been seeing a lot of rain these days. It's nothing to complain about, given that all of this rain is what makes this beautiful land it's lush green color. About two weeks ago I got to shoot with this ballet dancer Moe Yamamoto, and as forecasted, we had rain visit us. It helped us create such beautiful images. I hope the images speak to you.
We took some time to add a few accessories from fashion stylist Rei Rei Nguyen.
More dance and travel images coming to you soon.