Interview with James Clar

James Clar is an interactive light designer and an installation artist. James shows his work at a range of places, such as "Triennale di Milano" in Italy and New Museum of Contemporary Arts. He is drawing the attention of the various fields. Recently, he was invited to DOTMOV 2004 and The Media Arts Festival in Japan, sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Also, he is currently creating an interactive video capture system for one of Unite Bamboo's outlets in Daikanyama. As it is noticed above, he is expanding his production to outside the U.S. His unique and minimal work represents his excellent skills and his interesting originality with a number of elements of animations. Cool visited his studio in Brooklyn this time. We asked James about his vision toward design, including his experience of visiting Japan.

COOL: Firstly, can you tell be your brief profile and career background?

James Clar: I studied film at New York University. After that, I went straight to New York University’s graduate program, ITP, Interactive Telecommunication’s program and studied visual system. I also worked at Enybean Atelier, which is a media collective in New York and Fablica in Italy.

C: What made you start doing lighting art?

JC: As a visual designer, I think it’s important to understand how the eye works, so working with light is really basic level, so you can play a lot with lights depending on your idea. There are many lighting artists who take one theory and play out of it like three-dimensional design. That’s one way you eye can see data. Another way is a color data. When you close your one eye, you can see all the different colors bouncing, white, brown, and etc… After you see it, your eye is attributed to dataset. It’s a minimum system tries to recreate a color dataset. A visual designer needs to know your eye is always the one to pick up the data and interoperating the data later one. And to work with light as the media, you have to know how light works, whether it’s a bounce light or a reflective light, and need to use those ideas to spread those ideas. A musician composes sounds; I, as a visual artist, create lights.

C: You were mostly working on animation in a film, weren’t you?

JC: Actually, I started out film. In the first year of undergraduate, I was majoring in business, which does not relate to arts at all. I then switched over to film; and my parents freaked out. I used to play with my dad’s camera. My friends and I had fun doing the animations, so I thought why not just trying to do that as a career? Working within film and being in a film department, it got hard. A filmmaking is a huge production and requires so many people. It’s heard to get things precisely the way you want. The ideas you have need to go through so many channels when you are creating a film, but animation seems logical. Everything is on screen, so total control is on the screen. I then started 3D animation because in 3D animation you can have more dynamic and more lighting works.

C: Are you interested in any other art?

JC: I’m interested in minimalism. Minimalism means cutting all the extra stuff. It’s just a clean idea and no extras. I love Dia:Beacon, which is a warehouse has all the minimal arts.

C: What your concept behind your work?

JC: I created a new piece, “Circle Square” using the minimalism concept. This is really clean and trying to enable the concept. Another piece, called “Interactive Digital Dress,” I had this collaboration with Hariri and Hariri in New York. We developed a kind of a bendable screen. One of its ideas of the piece was a screen embedded into a dress. If you talk to the dress or interacted with the dress, the screen in the dress creates a certain pattern and react depending on how you to talk the dress, which means the clothing has a life of its own. Another idea of the dress was also to have a creature living in the dress. It’s a visual reprehensive like Tamagochi. The idea of this is to look at clothes more dynamic way.

C: From where do you get your inspiration?

JC: A lot of the concepts come from animation. I learn how to use a space and how to create a movement by counting frames and observing its timing. When working at Eyebeam, I was exposed to many established artists. I saw how they functioned and how they brought out the ideas. I also get influence from seeing other artist’s work.

C: What is the most important thing during the process of creating your work?

JC: A lot of the time, my work has wires and microchips embedded into lights, so until the end I don’t know if the light really works. It’s not unusual that I plugged in the light, and nothing happened, so it’s important that I always make sure if each process of my project works properly.

C: Is there any designers you have influenced?

JC: Ingo Maurer is awesome. He does a lot of lighting designs, but his pieces are static, different from my work. It’s more like a product design. Other designers, people like James Turrel and Dan Flavin, they have been doing lighting arts for a long. It’s interesting to see where their ideas and influences coming from.

C: You were invited to the Digital Film Festival, “DOTMOV 2004,” in Sapporo, Japan. How was it?

JC: Shift, a web magazine, promoted the exhibition on motion graphic works at Soso Café in Sapporo. I represented my work at there. They wanted me to present my work because it was something different. I like Japan a lot. I’m trying to build up more reputation and basis in Japan, so I can work both in New York and Tokyo. I think there’s a great market for my work in Tokyo. For instance, as for the culture, Tokyo easily accepts the new technology. When I was there the reception for the work I did was really positive.

C: You exhibited your work at the 8th Media Arts Festival, sponsored by the Agency for the Cultural Affairs, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in February. It was your second time showing your work in Japan. How was it?

JC: The exhibition for Japan Media Arts Festival was great! The other works were really great to see; there was a wide range of work from experimental video games, new media art, to animations. The opening ceremony was really nice at the Westin Tokyo; a lot of press was there. I think for the two weeks the exhibition was open; and over 44,000 people came. In Tokyo I was just one the "NHK Digista," which is a digital arts television program.

C: What’s your vision toward the future?

JC: I would like to continue experimenting and playing the ideas in lighting to have more abilities, but also in a long way, I would like to get into more environmental design. Some projects I’m going to hand out in the near future, I’m starting to move more toward not just product but a larger scale.


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James Clar
James Clar has been recognized by numerous publications such as Frame, Axis, IdN, including being awarded the "Design Distinction Award" by I.D. Magazine 2004 for his thesis project done at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunication’s Program. After receiving his Master’s James did work at Benetton's Fabrica design facility in Italy, he was an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam Atelier in New York, and was the inaugural artist for the FedEx Institute of Technology & Lantana Projects in Memphis. James has exhibited at numerous gallery spaces including New Museum of Contemporary Arts, Chelsea Art Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Milan Trienniale, and collaborative work for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York. Through his progressive work he has been invited to share his insight by guest lecturing at various conferences in New York, Seoul, Tokyo, and Memphis.

text by Kazumi UMEZAWA, photo by Noho KUBOTA

Interview with Yoshi Sodeoka

Currently, the Internet is used throughout the world by all generations, from the young to the old. However, the Internet’s history is still young. When the Internet started to enter people’s lives, a Japanese web designer appeared on the scene and roused a new wave in American business. His name is Yoshi Sodeoka. After he worked at Viacom, America’s major media group and the world’s biggest entertainment company, he as art director started World.com in 1995. 1995 is the year that Windows95 was introduced; an event that caused an explosive, worldwide movement. Next year the numbers of households using the Internet reached over 10 million. Sodeoka, who still works in New York as a freelancer, talked about the recent state of the Internet.

COOL: Can you briefly tell me about yourself and what you are working on right now?

Yoshi Sodeoka: I came to New York in 1989 when I was 20. I was studying arts and computers at the Pratt Institute. After that, I was working at MPB for about two years. I then started working on my own business and I founded a company with three other partners. Now I’m on my own again and doing some arts and design. As for the arts, I mainly work on videos and demonstrate them at museums and galleries.

C: What made you come to New York?

YS: I was going to Temple University in Japan and met a teacher from New York. The teacher was the Dean of Parsons School and was teaching arts and design. He was older than me but we had many things in common so we got along well. He was about to go back to New York and he asked me to continue my studies there. So that was the main reason for moving to New York.

C: You obviously have done various projects in the past. What do you think about your work at Viacom and World?

YS: Soon after graduating from school I started working at Viacom; I worked there for about two years. I did not know anything yet at that point, so I learned a lot from MTV projects and many other projects. At World, I could mostly do anything I wanted to do. I was an art director and I had the freedom to make the decisions most of the time. At that time the Internet was just getting popular, so everybody was interested in what I was doing. I really believed that I could do interesting things.

C: Is there any difference in web design from the past to the present?

YS: Design has changed a lot after the birth of the Internet. Unlike magazine and books, you can see current information right away on the Internet. Also, design in general has improved a lot. At the same time, there are many more people that imitate the designs of others. When one good design comes out, everyone wants to imitate it. Because of this many designs lack originality. Before the Internet became popular there were more people working on unique and individual designs. We have so many things going on now, so if you don’t know what you really like you probably would get lost.

C: What area of design do you find most interesting?

YS: Communication is important in the field of design because we have to create designs that someone else wants. Not only is skill important, but we are also required to find every solution in a limited amount of time. Every time creating a design is challenging, and each experience is unique. As for my personal art projects, creating them involves a totally different process from commercial design because with my projects everything comes from my inspirations. It does not have a given deadline, so I alone am responsible for the creating a schedule for completing my work step by step. I do two completely different things, art and design, so I don’t have a good balance.

C: Can you tell me your policy toward design?

YS: I’m trying to create designs that not only have a good appearance but also have deep concepts and make the audience think. I always wonder if this duality in my design is possible. I don’t think a design always has to have a complicated look because some designs that look so simple and easy sometimes have deep meaning inside.

C: Where do you get your inspiration?

YS: It depends on my project, but mostly my inspiration comes from normal life. I don’t go to museums to get the inspiration. And, especially if I’m in New York, I don’t really have to be conscious of getting it.

C: What’s your recent project?

YS: I worked on VH1, station ID at MTV. Also, I worked on a music video for Beck. Right now, I get more projects in video design than in web design. I prefer a short-term project for design because if the design project takes a long time, I would loose my interest. For me, I can be very creative when I’m forced to be so.

C: Do you have any vision toward the future?

YS: I have been doing design for a long time, so I want to concentrate more on arts; especially I want to work with video art. When I had the company with my partners I had to devote a lot of my time to the company -- but I’m on my own now, so I have more freedom. I want to use half a year of my time for myself.



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Yoshi Sodeoka
Sodeoka studied graphic design at Pratt Institute. After graduation, he was involved in inventing CD-ROM for MTV at Viacom. In 1995, as an art director, Sodeoka started an online magazine, World.com. As a starter of Webzine*, he has become a superstar in web business and has won many awards, such as the New York Folio Award and the I.D. Magazine Interactive Media Design Award. His interactive digital projects have been introduced in many websites and CD-ROMs, also exhibited at Sun Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American art, and Germany Museum of Design. *Webzine is an online magazine or an online journal that is formatted into a homepage. The name, Webzine, is combination of “web” and “magazine.”

text by Kazumi UMEZAWA

Interview with Karim Rashid

Karim Rashid, who demonstrates multiple talents in arts, music, and fashion, is a prize in the field of design. He designed at many brand labels such as Issey Miyake and Guccini. Some of his striking but cute work is featured at a number of famous museums, including MOMA. His first time in New York, he opened the Thai cuisine/ Sushi-bar restaurant, “Nooch,” last year. He designed the restaurant entirely, including the plates and the furniture. In addition to “Nooch,” he opened the designers’ goods store, “The Karim Rashid Shop.” Karim also has an art exhibition titled “I Want to Change the World”, which premiered in the beginning of this year. He has been passionately working; indeed, he entertains us with his upcoming work one after another. He is always in the center of attention. This time, I interviewed this man who does not seem to know exhaustion.

COOL: Could you give us a brief profile of yourself?

Karim Rashid: That's a big story. I opened my own design office 11 years ago here in NY.
Before that, I worked in Canada for 8 to 9 years and I received my Masters in Italy in 20 years ago and my undergraduate degree in Canada from 1978 to 1982. I was born in Cairo, I have an English mother, an Egyptian father, and I was raised in London and Toronto.

C: What made you become a designer? And when did you decide to be a designer?

K: I never thought about it. It's just like I was born that way. Seriously!
In my earliest years I can remember drawing objects, faces, apartments and accessories. I always thought I would be a designer. I only had questions when I was about 16 or 17 while deciding what university to go to. I did know what I should study, architecture, fashion design, interior design fine art -- Because then I didn't know about the profession of Industrial Design. I didn't know that it existed.
Because it wasn’t even considered a profession at the time, most people never heard of Industrial Design and very few schools taught it. I applied to study architecture at many schools and got rejection letters because I applied to late and my work was more in the area of Industrial Design. I read about what Industrial Design is and it was exactly what I wanted to do anyway.

C: Do you have your own philosophy regarding design?

K: Sure. Of course I think all good designers have to have a philosophy, an
ideology. I think my philosophy goes beyond the design.
Because when we think about design we always think of contemporary, beautiful objects, things that maybe also not part of everyday life, not part of a lot of people's lives. I don't think of design this way. Also, I don't think of design as just being relegated to the physical world. So my philosophy is probably more about life in general, more about living and how to live a more fulfilling and richer life. I don't mean rich by money, but through a more rewarding life.

C: How do you describe your style?

K: Well, “style” is a tricky word because style means that something is finished, closed -- it's complete. For example, if you think about Expressionism in paintings,
we call it “style” because Expressionism is over. When a movement is active you really don't use the word “style.” So the question is more about what my sensibility, my direction and my philosophy is. I would describe it as trying to do very human things, but in a very sensual, and kind of provocative, and technological way, by marrying all of these principles and expressing humanity and real sensuality with technologies and new materials and production efforts, trying to bring all of these things together. But at the end, to do things that are just very pleasurable, bringing people a kind of heightened sense of being.

Even though my degree is in Industrial Design and the majority of my work is in Industrial Design there is a side of me that is very much an artist. I think I'm sometimes torn between Industrial Design and art because I was brought up by an artist. My father was a painter. I’ve got the gene in me, my genetic make up being that of an artist, probably more artist than anything else. Being too poetic or too emotional, too sensitive -- this is not what Industrial Design is about. Industrial Design is more much about commodity, production, and engineering, so It's really difficult to walk the line between Industrial Design and art.
I think my freedom afforded me to do what I do about 5 or 6 years ago, I had to be at an art show in NY and I went to one after another, and all the sudden I realized that I can wear many hats. I realized that I could now show my work in the art world. I created a lot of products for mass production, but I soon realized that I could make more creative and artistic furniture. I realized how much I enjoy Industrial Design because I am not limited to creating products in one type of category or one market.
In fact, when I told you about all of the areas of design that I want to study, one of the areas that I wanted to mention is fashion design. Now I'm working on a lot of fashion accessories and things too. And there is also another area of design that I am currently working in -- I'm creating architecture. I'm doing two buildings, and a lot of interiors. I'm lucky because I am exploring a very broad range. At the same time, it’s what I wanted. I want to be broad. And I think if you want to be broad you can be. I believe what you put out into the world comes back to you. I get a lot of work from people now because they want my sensibility. Now people are interested in me making music. I also display my paintings in galleries that are interested in showing them.

It's unfortunate. As a child I was one of those kids that had to do everything.
It’s even worse when you are like me, a perfectionist that always had to be the best at what he did. I finished high school in two years -- I got the second highest mark in the class, and I still feel the same way (to be the best) a lot of the time. I want to be the best at everything that I do, so if I do art I want to be the best. If I do design I want to be the best designer.

C: Where do you get inspiration for those unique shapes?

K: I think inspiration is based on your entire life. A lot of times when I'm drawing
I think about things and ideas, and memories come into my mind from being a child, from being in college, and even from things that happened yesterday. I think inspiration is very cumulative. It's a result of all of your human experiences. Let's say I have a project in which I have to design a mobile phone. I don't look at other mobile phones, but what I try to do is to think about the human condition first and of what is practical. You can get inspired by how we engage and interact with things. I am also inspired by the use of my tools (digital tools and engineering programs) and things I can do on screen.
The third thing that I am inspired by are all of the materials that come into my office that we completely look forward to, which are new forms of plastics, new finishes and new materials.
The forth source of inspiration is inspiration that comes from working on other projects. Maybe I'm working on an interior in Singapore. I may somehow find a relationship between this work in Singapore and a watch I am designing in Italy. Internally,
inside of you, you have all these things that I’ve talked about, memories, childhood...
I was brought up in 60's and 70's when society was very utopist, and it was probably a time with the most disregard for adhering to standards in design because people were interested in changing their lives then. So being a child I was brought with this idea that one day we would be living in a utopia. That was probably a big inspiration to me, too.

C: Is there any relationship between music and your design?

K: I think music is kind of like immaterial design because music is motive, sensual,
seductive, human and a narrative about living, issues politics
and social life. And I think design is very much about all things, too. It's kind of a
parallel universe of design. I think it is possible for me to make a table like a piece of music. Mass production in industrial design is really interesting to me, and I really think that design is about mass production, not about art.
It is possible to make a physical product that is very popular, beautiful and so well accepted and so public as music is. You can write a popular song and it touches everybody.
And you can make objects in design this way. I think in design it is more difficult to do this, but you can.

C: Are you thinking doing something new? What do you want to design something new from now?

K: Of course. I'm working on 70 projects, 25 countries. I'm doing everything from
jewelry, watches, shoes, phones, computer, furniture, lighting, interiors, restaurants, shops, buildings, hotel, vacuum cleaners… I have passion for all of them. I'm very excited about all of them.
If you have so many project to work on you forget some of them.
I'm doing all plastic shoes with the company in Brasil and we just got samples in this morning. I haven't thought about the project for 3 months. I became thrilled and at the same time frustrated, because I wanted it to be better than what it was. I'm not quite satisfied by everything. I think anybody who is creative is never satisfied. Because there is no absolute notion of creativity.
Creativity is abstract, so you can never really say that something is complete.


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Karim Rashid
Industrial Designer

text by Kazumi UMEZAWA, photo by Noho KUBOTA

Film Freaks vol.01 [ARAKIMENTARI]

In New York, with Jason Fried (Producer) -----

The controversial documentary “Arakimentari”, about the celebrated and sometimes infamous Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki opened in February of 2005, and exposed America to the life of this complex artist whose work has influenced Japanese Culture. We met with Jason Fried, the producer of “Arakimentari” in a small Williamsburg café to get the scoop on the making of this film, and on his experience with working with Nobuyoshi Araki.


COOL: How did you meet with the director, Travis Klose?

JASON: Travis and I were roommates for seven months before the film started, and then for another year after. So Travis had the idea for the film, and that started the ball rolling.

C: About the making of “Arakimentari”, what was the process like?

J: It was really long. We went there the Summer of 2002. We shot for about a month and then we came back to NY and we edited the movie for almost a year and a half. It was interesting. We really didn’t have a defined story, and when we got there Araki said “Just follow me, watch what I do, and you’ll get it. You’ll understand and it will make sense”…So we did that. He was all over the place so it was really hard to follow him, but we did. Then we came back and we had a lot of footage of Araki, and interviews with all of these people around him, and Dido. We made a trailer, a really quick edit (about 3 minutes) for the website to try to raise money for it. That worked ok. Then we tried to figure out a structure for the film. That went on for a while, for a few months, just trying to figure it all out … and then the editing process…we went through 3 different editors, all Japanese, because the whole film is in Japanese. My Japanese consists of about 4 words. Travis is good at Japanese, but not good enough to edit this film. It went on, and went on…then we’d get it cut and we’d change it and move things around…It just went on for so long. Then we interviewed Bjork in New York and Richard Kern. Then Travis went back to Japan…and then once we had a rough cut, we interviewed DJ Crush who said he’d be interested in doing the soundtrack. So then we went back and forth with [DJ Crush] to do the soundtrack through email…We would email him an idea then he’d post the MP3 on a website and then we’d email him back and forth…So we created the entire track through email. We finished editing 4 days before the festival, and then we continued to edit after the festival. The “done, done” edit was finished on August 1st , 2004.

C: What did you think of Mr. Araki?

J: He treated us like his children in a way. Not over-the-top. When it was down to business, it was business. But he’s so generous in his nature. He would take us out to eat, he would take us to Karaoke. He really does have this Edo personality, where he just wants to like “Alright we’re done, let’s go spend our money, drink and be merry!” He’s very cool. There are very few people that I’ve met in my life that have that sort of mentality.

C: What is the main message of “Arakimentari”?

J: Well I think originally what we wanted to do was share our understanding or our experience of Araki, mainly with westerners. That was the original idea. To a Japanese audience, Araki is already known. Most of the stuff in the film a Japanese audience knows about. Someone who is Japanese would understand his pictures because of the context. Your Japanese, you might look at a bonded picture and think of Shibuya and make that correlation. But too a westerner they just see the picture, and they see a naked girl, and they see the lighting and that’s all they see. So our idea was to take his photographs and put them in context to a western audience so that they wouldn’t just see his pictures with a blind eye, but would actually understand the story and the emotion and everything that goes into these images that make them what they are. And I think it works. There’s a lot about Araki that we found people didn’t know about. When you look at his pictures again after seeing the film they take on a completely different light and it’s like putting life into them again. They are renewed…especially for a younger audience. For a younger audience, if they see the movie and then look at his pictures they are completely different than if you looked at them an hour before. Structurally we wanted to say “Here’s the dirty pornography” and then as the movie unfolds you start learning more about his personality and about why he is doing what he does, and that he actually has a sensitive side, and the story about his wife…All of a sudden he becomes this bigger, real person with emotions and you actually begin to have feeling for him. You get attached to his character. At the end you’ve seen the craziness and happiness, but you get a sense that there’s a part of him, inside of his center, that is sad and lonely.



In Tokyo, with Travis Klose (Director) -----

We met with Travis in Koenji, a district in Tokyo, where he established the base of activity for the production of “Arakimentari”. He showed up with Masa, the associate producer of the film. At first he greeted us with a smile, saying “How do you do?” in Japanese. He had a hangover and told us that he loves Japanese culture. The café they invite me to had an atmosphere like one found in New York’s East Village. Just before the film’s opening to the public on March 5th, they experienced daily interviews from all of the different media. He speaks a little Japanese. As far as he can answer, he had answered in Japanese.

COOL: Could you tell us what got you first interested in filmmaking and made you come up with the idea for making “Arakimentari”.

TRAVIS: I first became interested in film about 7 or 8 years ago. Originally I wanted to make music. After studying music at college, I found that film was more interesting. It combined music, images, story, sound and other elements into a single work of art
I first learned of Araki when I saw the book “Tokyo Lucky Hall”. In it there were black and white photos of the sex world in Kabuki-cho (Tokyo). They were a little dark and seedy. I felt it was very curious. I couldn’t understand why it was considered art.
I hadn’t thought of making a documentary, but I decided I wanted to make a documentary in Japan using this Japanese photographer. I thought Araki’s subject matter would be interesting -- Sex in Tokyo. I wanted to understand for myself what art was, and I got a better understanding of art though making the documentary.
The film is more about who Araki is than a historical documentation of his life and work. I didn’t want to be like “in 19xx Araki made this”, etc…It’s more about Araki as a person and artist and his working method, etc.

C: What was your first impression of Tokyo?

T: Comfortable. I was really comfortable in Japan, not too fast-paced, very relaxing for me. Japan was comfortable, but also very stimulating.

C: Were you able to film whatever you wanted?

T: Yes. Originally Araki was a little nervous about letting us film because he had a bad experience with another foreign film crew. So we were only promised two days in order to film Araki. But finally I ended up having 10 days of time to film him. I got most of what I wanted and needed during those 10 days.
I had to come back though a year and a half after to film. We realized we wanted or needed to have a few things. But they were not of Araki. They were of other stuff in Tokyo.
I was allowed to shoot almost whatever I wanted. Naked models and so on were no problem. But we couldn’t film in Araki’s house. Araki’s private life is always off limits to people filming him.
Araki also wanted to help the crew once he trusted them. He tried to get things set up well before filming, so everything would be ready for them to shoot and things would go smoothly.

C: You made your directorial debut with “Arakimentari”. Making a film as a director, were there some different things from your previous experiences making films?

T: Before everything else, this was my first experience in making a documentary.
When I went to the film school in New York I had done some small film projects before. Making documentary was very different from what I had been used to.
Usually when making a film, you think in terms of narrative and story at first. To create the narrative and then think about how to film it, what you will need… With a documentary, you start with an idea and it expands outward. You film lots of stuff and end up with lots of footage have to take that and edit it together to make it into a story and narrative.

I enjoyed making the film but it was very difficult. I changed as a person and learned a lot from Araki.

C: Did you have trouble making “Arakimentari”?

T: Trouble? A lot. We had almost no money, so it was really hard to do what we wanted to do sometimes. At first I was planning to edit the movie myself.
I thought I had enough knowledge of Japanese to be able to figure out the main idea of what people were saying on film and be able to edit it together. But soon I realized my Japanese wasn’t good enough to edit things together in a way that still made sense, so I would need to find someone else to edit or help edit. But I didn’t have any money to pay someone.
The three main people making the film were all sharing one “Gaijin House” room. Two of them on the bed and one (me) on the futon on the floor. The other two guys liked the room to be cool, so they often had the window open…. I was very cold at night.

C: What did Araki think about “Arakimentari”?

T: He liked it. He said he was very lucky.

C: What will your next project be?

T: “Yakuzamentari”. I’m trying to talk to Shiina Ringo about making a film. It will be similar to “Pink Floyd The Wall” which is filmed about one rock and roll music band. But I’m thinking about making a film about Shiina Ringo and her music, which will be a fictional story about a documentary crew who comes to Japan to make a documentary about Yakuza. It will be fictional, but using documentary techniques, so it will look like it is actually a documentary.

C: Besides filmmaking, what kind of things do you want to try in the future?

T: For me, filmmaking is not really a job. I enjoy having a life where I am making things, making art and like as an artistic process. I really like taking pictures too. But I don’t think I could be a photographer. But I want a life filled with making artistic products film, music, photos, etc.



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Travis Klose graduated at New York University Tisch School of The Arts with a major in Film & Television. He has played an active part in the making of the films "Spider-Man" (02/Director: Sam Raimi) and Uma Thurman's “Hysterical Blindness” (02/Director: Mira Nair) as a cameraman and a location assistant.

Jason Fried has been a pioneer in the world of an interactive computer design. He participated as a producer and soundman for “Arakimentari”. Looking to make his debut as a film director, he is planning to make a documentary film called "Mass Incarceration" in the United States now.

text by Sayako MAEDA(Jason), Mieko SAI(Travis)

Interview with Ricky Powell

On a snowy day in January we visited Ricky Powell’s house. This charismatic photographer whose name also has become well-known in Japan, is famous for taking the snap shots of many celebrities, tour photographs of bands and more. Although I became nervous when I was invited in to the house in which he and his cat lives, his first words "What is the first question?" in a friendly voice relieved me, and it started our interview smoothly.


COOL: What’s new with you recently?

RICKY: Well I have a new book that just came out called “frozade moments”…A postcard book… Just hit on “Ijammy.com”.

C: Could you tell us about yourself?

R: I am a native New Yorker. I am 43 years old. Freelance writer, photographer and I’m also working on a book coming out later this year. It’s going to be called “Public Access”. It’s going to be a 20-year retrospective of my work. And in this book there are a lot of collaborations. I had artists collaborate with me… Here’s the cover for my new book. That’s me (on the cover). This photographer named Spencer Tunic took this picture of me… He shoots all of the people on the street without clothes on. This is a picture of Keith Haring holding up 2 beer cans. And you know Russ from SSUR? He painted that. Dalek painted on this one…(Showing the card) It was called “Funky Dope Maneuvers” where I had artists paint on my black and white photos. I am excited about the book. It will be out in September on “Powerhouse Books”.

C: Which camera do you use?

R: I use a Minolta Auto-Focus. Sometimes I use a Pentax.

C: What was your most exciting moment as a photographer?

R: There are so many…I don’t know the most exciting moment is just when I catch a good shot on the street. Right now my main focus is street photography, so when I catch a moment (and it’s real hard to catch anything on the street) that makes my day. You know, not necessarily shooting one person, especially like a celebrity. I shot a lot [of celebrities] so it’s hard to really narrow it down. These days it makes me happy when I have my camera and I’m walking and I see something on the street…It could be anything, a dog, a person…Little moments like this (showing a picture).

C: Sometimes do people try to stop you from taking pictures on the street?

R: Yes. That happens sometimes. It’s funny. I’ve been taking pictures like that for years
without…well usually I like to ask. This past summer I took a picture of a lady smoking a cigarette on the street and she saw me and I said “I hope you don’t mind”. She said, “I DO mind!” She got real mad. She started screaming at me on the street. “Who do you think you are? If there was a cop here I’d have you arrested! You can’t go around taking pictures of people without asking.” A couple of months later – I’ve been taking this class on TV production. I was talking to this guy who told me “Yeah man, you have to ask people on the street if you can take their picture because their could be some legal problems?” I said “What? I’ve been shooting people on the street without asking permission for 20 years!” He said, “You’re lucky you didn’t get arrested ever.” So for now on I basically ask. You know, ask first shoot second. But it’s funny, you know one of my photographers that I look up to, Ron Gallella. He shoots many celebrities over the years. His philosophy is “Shoot first, THEN ask…” (laughter) So he’s gotten into trouble in the past

C: When you ask people…

R: You loose the moment. Yeah, that can happen.

C: What is your most favorite subject?

R: Animals. They’re beautiful…I don’t know. They’re just natural. I have this special sound I make when I want to get dogs to look at me in the picture like this (tilting his head with a confused look). That’s when I take the picture.

C: What kind of animals?

R: Dogs mostly.

C: How about your cat?

R: Yeah, he’s alright. I had some other cats that passed away. They were real fun. I had a black cat named Blackberry. He was a long-haired Persian, and I used to give him haircuts…So he had the lion haircut…I have a backyard with a garden in the back and he used to go back there and run around. I use to take pictures of him running free. We have some animal shots in this book…Animals are definitely part of the repertoire.

C: Is there anyone who has influenced you strongly?

R: Yeah. Linda McCartney. You know Paul McCartney? His wife... She had a famous book. I like her style because she hung out with a lot of famous people, but she was very humble. She didn’t act like a big shot. I like the little captions next to her photos. That was a big influence on me, that book.

C: You shoot using film, right? Do you use digital?

R: No. 35mm…because I don’t have a computer or anything…I did a campaign ad for Canon Digital Cameras, but they didn’t give me a camera.

C: What’s the reason that you have for producing your book?

R: Well…as a photographer that’s basically what I live for. I don’t get called to do much work, to do shoots…The only time I get paid is when people email my website at RickyPowell.com looking for photos. They’re like “Did you shoot this?” or “Have you shot that?” or “Can I get a print of that?”…A book for me is like -- it gets a lot of people to see your work and it acts like a portfolio for you out there…So books are very important.

C: You visited Japan in 2003? What did you think?

R: I loved it. I did a three city tour – Tokyo, Osaka、Fukuoka. It was nice. I must say. Getting over there…the plane ride was rough. I always have a good time when I go there. Japanese people are very nice, very respectful…Much nicer than the people here. You know, it’s weird. I don’t really like people here.

C: Why?

R: Bad attitudes. Especially the people who just moved here. The new people…Just stupid. They act stupid. That’s why I stay home a lot. That why I basically just photograph animals.

C: Is there any other thing you would like to try?

R: Yeah. A TV Show. I used to have a TV show. I have a new DVD out of four old shows, including the first ever. And some bonus footage of me on some other TV shows. So I want to bring my TV show back. I want to be a host of a talk show. I’m going to start taping at the end of　March. We hope to have the show on the air by Summer, and repeated in the fall. I am going to make 13 shows. 13 is a season.　It’s going to be a talk show about NYC. I am going to have mostly people who grew up here and we’re going to talk about NYC.

C: Regular people or famous people?

R: Mostly famous, and some not. I want to get high profile people to the show, like Fab(Five Freddy). People like that. New York characters…and just talk about New York City. What happened to it. It’s changed. Change isn’t necessarily bad, but I don’t like the way it’s changed. It’s lost a lot of its flavor. It’s happening around the world though. It’s not just in New York. It’s the modern world. I don’t really like it. In New York when Mayor Giuliani came in I hated him. Because he took out gardens and put up ugly buildings so the rich people could move in. Shit like that….and the new Mayor Bloomberg…Their idea of “quality of life” Is not my idea of “quality of life”. It’s like, where you grow up if you see a change and you don’t like it, you get mad.
Instead of telling my friends on the street corner how mad I am, I feel I need a bigger forum, a bigger audience. That’s why I’m bringing the show on…to put my voice out there and say “I don’t like it.” It’s not going to be a whole negative show. That’s why I want to let people tell there version. Everybody knows my feeling. I want to let people show their feelings.

C: What do you think is the most interesting point of photography?

R: One, the interaction between the subject and the photographer. And for me, the backgrounds. Since the city is my studio the backgrounds are important. I like to use nice backgrounds like brick walls, the park. I like rustic backgrounds.

C: Where do you shoot mostly?

R: Down here. I use to go around a lot but I don’t really go around the city that much anymore. I’ve become reclusive…but I have my good days.

C: How do you think the future will be?

R: Well I hope I’m rich. I’ve been very broke. The last two years I’ve been struggling. No work. It’s been rough. But I’m hoping to make a big rebound. People’s careers…no one stays the same. It’s always up and down. So I’m coming out of a two year low and I’m hoping to come back up. Whatever happens, happens. I’d like to make some money because that’s what you need, but as long as I do what I like I can be pretty happy for that. I don’t really want to have a regular job. I can’t really work. I get crazy. …The only job I can really have is a job as a bike messenger. Doing that you can be free. I was a bike messenger for 15 years on and off. One of the things I am known for in the Rickford Files book, whenever I had a job as a bike messenger or bus boy I’d bring my camera with me. It lightened up the mundane part of the job. It made it interesting.

C: Also the TV show is coming too.

R: So I’m hoping with the TV show and this book, this year in 2005 I can have a rise, because last year, 2004, was the worst year of my life...professionally, financially and spiritually. My show is going to be half in the studio and half on location. My partner, DB Toujani, is my oldest friend. He’s doing the show with me. He’s the technical guy…I’m very lucky to have him. When the show comes out it will be called “Laughing with the Rickster”.

C: We’ve heard that recently you are making your own brand of T-shirts and also sneakers.

R: Yes T-shirts through “Upper Playground”. And sneakers. Only 100 pairs were made.


Then Ricky showed us stylish sneakers covered by his black-and-white photos. After the interview, Ricky said, "All right, let's go to the backyard to take photos!", and energetically ran into the snowy backyard, posed with trumpet in hand. We had a really great time during the interview and were thankful that Ricky welcomed us so openly.


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RICKY POWELL
He first got attention by taking photos back in the Golden Age of Old School Hip-Hop in the late 1980s, and then got attention again by publishing two collections of photographs, "Oh Snap" and "The Rickford Files", and by touring and private scene with RUN D.M.C, BEASTIE BOYS, LL COOL J and others.
Recently, his postcard book "Frozade Moments" won critical attention.

text by Sayako MAEDA, photo by Naho KUBOTA