Did you originally take photos to document your children growing up, or did you mean to take them as works of art?
I started taking pictures in 2008 because I saw my friend taking some with a DSLR camera and just thought it was cool. Before that I hadn’t had any particular interest in photography. Then my friend gave me a used DSLR camera and I started taking pictures. It was right at the time my second daughter, Kanna, was born, so my two daughters made handy subjects and I photographed their daily lives.
Taking a step back and observing my children’s everyday lives through the finder, I found a lot of mini bits of “good news” you would usually ignore — really insignificant things — and the photos I took of those moments were unexpectedly popular with my family.
Having tasted success, no matter where we went or what we were doing, I would always be one step removed from my family with my camera at the ready — like a hunter aiming at his prey. This was the birth of our family’s official photographer, known as “Father.”
Later, in 2010, I got a Pentax 67 medium-format camera. It’s a camera where everything, including the focus and shutter speed has to be set manually. While aligning all these settings, I would miss perfect photo ops happening right before my eyes. … I was supposed to have just triumphantly set sail as the family’s official photographer, but I had already hit this ridiculously huge wall.
Then it occurred to me, “If I can’t nail the moment, I could just take their picture when they’re not moving!” This overly positive outlook changed my course as the official family photographer in a big way. Instead of pictures where I captured a wondrous moment or lovely daily-life scene, shots with creative elements that make you burst out laughing in spite of their triviality, became my, and our children’s, (family photo) standard.
Another thing that changed in a big way was my relationship with my daughters. They work so hard to take my intense acting direction. Now we have a parent-child bond stronger than blood. (Laughs)