1. You’ve been interviewing and taking portraits of people for your project, “Hazime-Mashite,” for about five years now. What inspired you to start this? I wanted to figure out what I did and didn’t like through the process of asking to photograph random people. When I look back, I feel I really needed space outside my house or school to do something purely for me, not based on other people’s opinions.
2. When did you first start taking pictures? When I started my “Hazime-Mashite” project, I didn’t even have a camera. I just wanted to talk with random people. But once I started, I realized people thought I looked suspicious. So I came up with an idea, which was to approach people with a camera. I thought my first impression would then be, “Oh, this guy might want to take a photo of me,” rather than “Who the f—- are you?”
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