Hey,

I'm Will.

I'm that kid who took everything apart. I have a deep need to know how things 'tick'. I have always had a love for technology and creating new things. Growing up in the 1980's, all the cool technical stuff came from Japan, so naturally I became interested in that country, especially the culture, people, and food! In elementary and middle school, I vaguely remember taking every opportunity to read about this place that seemed so far away and foreign to me at the time. I visited Japan for the first time in 1990 with my uncle and cousin at the age of 12. My cousin and I were able to run around Tokyo unsupervised in this glorious mega-city which abounded with technological marvels. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It was a magical place and I was hooked. I took Japanese in high school, and went on an exchange program over the summer of my junior year. I studied the language in college, eventually graduating from UCSB with a degree in Japanese Language and Culture. All the while, I was working in technology, developing software and doing web development which eventually became my career path despite my major. But I continue to study the language, art, culture, and I visit every few years.

I like to say that every time I go to Japan, I come back with more questions than answers. But each time I go, and the more I learn, the more that the aesthetics blend with my creative side. On a trip in 2020, at the beginning of the covid lockdown, my partner and I were in the country for just over three weeks and the streets were empty. It was surreal. A place normally full of life became a liminal space imbibed by the aesthetic sensibilities of over a thousand years of Japanese craftspeople and subsequent generations of people inhabiting the space. At the cusp of spring with the cherry blossoms falling, and a certain impending sense of darkness that most of us felt at the onset of the COVID pandemic, I felt a deep need to capture the feeling and the moment. It was not the first time I had experienced a unique event in Japan - I was there on 9/11/2001 and saw American flags flying everywhere in Tokyo. The outpouring of support and solidarity was truly moving, and I can only tell you about that because I didn't take any pictures then. Afterwards I was sorry that I had missed capturing that experience, and was mindful of that in early 2020 as we roamed the empty streets, temples and shrines of Kyoto. At that point, I promised myself I would do better in capturing those moments in life that are meaningful and to telling stories. Before our next trip, I had purchased a professional camera and started taking photography classes on my journey to become a better artist and story teller.

While gearing up to take pictures on subsequent trips, I have taken great joy in capturing my life here in California and the lives of the people around me. I encounter things and people all the time that I want to make images of. The images are my way of showing others how I perceive the world. It's part of my story and an ongoing love letter to anyone who has tuned in to watch. I love telling other people's stories as well. Whether I'm documenting my own adventures and telling those stories, or shooting headshots for a friend or client, the aesthetic sensibilities I have gained through my own experiences are mixed in and I put my heart into capturing the emotion and story that I love to tell as a photographer. My goal is to capture the emotion of the people and spaces I am photographing and I always want that to be a pleasurable experience for the subject and for the audience, but I am always mindful of the space I inhabit and have picked up my camera in uncomfortable circumstances to tell stories as well. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you and to get to know you.