Ceren

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

LambaLena on 35mm

The Portland Zouk community is really grateful to have Lena join the land of evergreen, awesome food carts & weirdness. Lena specializes in Lambada, which is a lovely partner dance style that I hope to one day dance well. 

You can easily see from the photos that Lena has experience with ballet and contemporary dance, dance forms that amaze me always. What is best about having her as a new instructor here in Portland though is really, her silly personality. Anyone who knows her would most likely describe her as cute & silly. Quirky. Personable, & respectable. As a Japanese person, I'm happy to have happa Lena to speak Japanese with too!

Thanks for being here Lena ^^. 

Masumi

Nikki: Kindness

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

Analog Moments: Moe

During these past few days Portland has been blessed with days of lovely blue skies. Did you get a chance to feel the sun rays? Here are some lovely shots I got to create with Portland dancer Moe Yamamoto

Due to gigs and meetings my trip to Australia has been pushed back to June, but this month I am planning on taking a little solo trip. Somewhere, sometime. For now I plan to keep it to myself until taking off. 

See you again, folks.