Colourful Singapore

It's the type of headline once seen in what we would now term vintage magazines. Or the title of an ancient travelogue film of the type made by the British company Pathe. I spent three years in Singapore in the 1990s: working, adopting a kitten from an animal sanctuary and not taking these photos. Because…

Rare photographs of pre-Revolution Russia

In my previous piece I related the story of the Howarth family in Moscow, and the collection of photographs that they brought back following their escape from the country at the time of the Revolution in 1917. For the first time ever, these photos are published below, a mix of rural scenes and people, offering…

裕仁 Crown Prince Hirohito’s birthday: May 7, 1919

They are a mystery couple. I don't know their names nor why they travelled to Japan but I had come across a riveting photograph in an album they had put together after travelling to Tokyo in 1919. They were Canadian, and had travelled on their own leaving their two young children Don and Jack behind.…

Rokko Island 六甲アイランド – a picture essay.

From visits made in 2016, 1996, and 1993. 2016 Northern side of the island closest to the Kobe coastline. Looking north from the Sheraton Hotel with Mount Rokko in the far distant. The Rokko Liner is the monorail train track running into the centre. Rokko Liner. 神戸新交通六甲アイランド線 Exterior of an office building. Once P&G's Japan…

Marugame

Adapted from the book, 7 Islands: 7 Weeks Then: Marugame 1999We are nearing the end of the millennium but here in Marugame we could be decades earlier. Covered completely from head to toe to protect themselves from the sun’s violent heat, old women toiled in the fields surrounding my parents-in-laws' house. A farmer's wife working…

Mari Katayama and her Leica mini3

Katyama-san holding her Leica mini3 Mari Katayama is currently one of the artists representing Japan at the Venice Biennale - and attracting rave reviews for her work. When we met a few months back we talked a number of things but I was particularly interested in her use of a Leica Mini3. Not her only…