The road

Wish we travelled in this one instead of the more modest Ford rental.



California / Nevada. Part 4 in a series of American on/off the beaten track photography.

























































































































I just couldn't pick the stronger of these two. Any suggestions?!

Ink&Iron 2009

Was shooting an assignment down in Long Beach when in California. This tattoo and custom culture festival on the RMS Queen Mary was pretty cool this year as well. American street culture all in one fat weekend. Bands like Eagles Of Death Metal and The Woggles (tight) played so I got my dose of this needy formula. I'm not a big car fan but machines and metal works are pretty photogenic so I ended up shooting more of this than any editor would ever want to touch. Post it here instead where it makes more sense. If you ever end up in Long Beach C.A, check out the Queen, stunning marine engineering and design. I was in the merchant marine for 10 years before I started photography professional so I get kinda gloomy that I don't have the same access to being on a ship and seeing the ocean anymore, bitter sweet for sure!

Tha Studio gig

Off stage stuff from my metal buddies of OGRE. True metal indeed. We are starting a new music video/promotion video shortly. I will shoot and direct this master piece so stay tuned....it will be evil!!

In Transition

Back after some pretty cool moments (not cool as cold though, Death Valley was sizzling...almost stepped on a rattle snake as well!) in California and Nevada. Will get through the files after the weekend when I have reached the deadlines for jobs I set out to do. Got some master pieces for sure....so fucking happy that I have the ability to actually get what I intend to get with my cameras.





Stay tuned

Bye bye baikin...

Out of town till the end of June.

San Jose / San Francisco / Long Beach / Death Valley

D.I.Y or D.I.E

Ms.Tanaka ...please try a Little More

No photos in this post, doesn't deserve it!

I pretty much know that I should better leave this alone and just go on in life as usual. I have a feeling that I will have to eat this up in the future but it's my blog so fuck it, and what's on the agenda is pretty interesting though sad. I had a couple of meetings with various book publishers here in Tokyo the last week, and what I learnt from these pretty weird encounters has really made me think. I guess (hope) this is a Japanese phenomena and not completely world wide. I have taken a pretty deep look of what's out there in forms of photography and there seems like the Japanese market really never had a market to start with and what it has and is around today is based of famous names (who made them famous?) and the like, the industry is a beauty isn't it? It's really seldom you find something that is based on photography as photography and not a theme or "topic" only. Quality photography is dead in Japan and it's thanks to the editors and book publishers that choose what to push out to the masses. Can hear it myself that I sound like a complaining bitch and that some of you may well think that I should just make my photography better then , adopt and go on. Well, it's not about me this time, It's not me I feel sorry for, it's about what we have put in front of us and slowly becoming a norm all by a chance. I had meetings with a couple of leading "cutting edge" book publishers, Little More is called one of the leading of the sort here in Tokyo. What I was shown while meeting the "editor" just made me.... disappointed and sad. Of course, if this innovator on the Japanese market set the norm and this is what they have to show there is not much for a guy like me here anymore. To completely be able to cut out all the beauty in photography and without looking a little bit deeper into what is within the frame really was something that I have seen coming but not in this scale...and I am a person with wide open eyes. Photography as flat, washed out and lifeless ideas mixed with thoughtless compositions and a quality lacking in all aspects. No respect to the photo within the image. In a way I am quite grateful to have the chance to meet a young (what is film photography...) striving yet blind business woman like Ms. Tanaka and that I am sure people in similar positions here in Japan will have worked the "Japanese style" into something new and inspiring for new comers in this "scene". We all know it's not photography, but who cares...? (I do, but I am just who I am...not enough)

I see this way of thinking in so many genres here in Japan, a place I actually really like living in. Music, The most fabulous musical instruments are made here but the users who learnt how to use then and make music into something beautiful / powerful with life baked in the mix is very seldom from here. The few japanese bands of musicians that has something of a talent can often not live on it since they are not given the chance by not being money makers and the masses needs something more simple and easy to digest. The music industry...industry? shouldn't this word alone be enough to make you start thinking? Get the point!?



Signing out /

Mattias Westfalk

Bikes

Stuff from the street

Kinda felt a little like this today...struggling to get some shit done. "It's a long way to the top if you wanna Rock'N'Roll" (Bon Scott) also played in the back of my head.




Trashed the city streets with Young Sam later on....feeling petty empty now...!

Horizontal

The horizontal portrait, gives you a more environmental feel and a less "fine" framing of the face....but what do I know about anything? ....well, why not!?