Fashion photographer Aram Dikiciyan recognizes that his work is hard to define. "I can't really decide if I'm a fashion photographer or an artist," he explains over coffee in Tokyo's fashionable Omotesando district.

Our cozy table in this chic Parisian- style cafe overlooks a somber skyline of low gray clouds and rain sheeting down on grimy rooftops. Like the setting for our meeting, Dikiciyan's work — showing at the Clear Gallery in Shibuya till Feb. 14 — is both glamorous and gritty. Shot in grainy monochrome, the contrast in the sparsely composed images is so fierce that it almost obscures the clothes the models are wearing.

Although his photographs are the antithesis of the usual bright, glossy images used by the fashion industry, his work is sought after by a number of foreign style magazines, including New York's Big Man. MIXT(E) in Paris and Style in Berlin. He's also in demand with cult Japanese menswear labels such as The Viridi-anne, who employ him to showcase their work.