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The Art Of Bird Photography Portfolio Free Flight To

He has exhibited globally in group shows and photo festivals, and toured the world with punk and hardcore rock bands, where he is often spotted deep in a mosh-pit, camera pumping in the air.

The Art Of Bird Photography Portfolio Free Flight To

Tanakas whole career sprouted from a string of unexpected coincidences, beginning with a free flight to America.

Without planning anything, coincidence after coincidence kept on happening and connecting to one another, says Tanaka over email from New York, just a couple of days before he flies home to Japan after a month-long tour through Americas midwestern states.

He spotted a raffle in the events hall a common event in Japan in which you spun a barrel full of coloured balls, and picked out a colour to see what youd won.

It was a Buy 3000 yen around 20 worth of shopping and get a free draw kind of deal, and most of the prizes were food-related.

Whoever it had belonged to had spent over 3000 yen, so Tanaka took it to the counter and had a go on the wheel.

Obviously I lost, he says, I got a complementary packet of tissues or something and that was it.

Gradually he began to win prizes, and soon enough he got addicted to playing the raffle.

At one stage I must have gone back two or three times a week Thinking back on it now, I was taking back stacks of receipts each day, but I never had a single bag of shopping, he says.

Tanaka had won a free flight to America, and with that, his journey into the world of photography began.

A big fan of American hardcore, punk, and indie rock music, he headed straight to First Avenue 7th St Entry in Minneapolis, the venue in which Prince filmed Purple Rain.

For some reason they just gave me one, and from there we became friends, and started hanging out in Minneapolis.

I couldnt speak any English, but they were so friendly and kind to me.

They travelled in a van down giant highways, through cornfields so vast they dropped off the horizon; he went to underground gigs, ate pizza slices bigger than his face, and hung out with musicians who smoked enormous joints in the back of parking lots things he would never see back in Japan.

Id never been to America before and I experienced so many things that were completely different to my hometown.

It was like watching a film scene after scene I was baffled by how much was going on all the time.

There was more of a deeper DIY-spirit, which really struck me.

He scribbled down diagrams to illustrate ISO and F-Stops, but none of it made sense to Tanaka at the time.

I just went by two rules for the whole tour: the venues were all dark, so I used a flash, and outside in the sun, I used Auto mode.

I started going to libraries and book shops to look at photobooks, and gradually I was sucked into the world of photography.

Back home, he enrolled in a workshop with Koji Onaka where I learned everything I know about photography and kept travelling back to the states to tour with bands, this time as a photographer.

Tanaka moved back to Japan afterwards, but he still travels a lot last year, he was only at home for about two or three month, spending the rest of the time either working abroad or travelling.

Several months later the book was published and launched at Polycopies at Paris Photo.

For me, a good image is one that moves something inside my body and mind, like when you hear a good song and you forget about the world around you, he says.

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