Naoki TerakawaArchitectural Photographer, Tokyo
To record a building as faithfully as possible — true to its nature — while preserving the architect's intent, the client's vision, the craftsman's hand and the inherent presence of space within a single frame.
The architect's intention, the client's vision, the craftsman's hand, the scale of space, the quality of light, and the texture of materials — all of these begin to change the moment a building is completed. By capturing a building in its finest state at that moment, I aim to leave a record that holds meaning for the architect, the client and the builder alike. What this requires is technical precision and a trained eye for reading space.
What I value most is the expression of material texture. The unevenness of a wall, the rough touch of concrete, the patina of aging wood — these are sensations photography rarely captures with ease. Through careful focus and refined post-processing, I work to retain them within the frame, so that the physical presence of architecture is preserved as something tangible.
Drawing on years of experience photographing architecture on location, I approach each frame with my own eye and hand. High-resolution imaging, carefully planned lighting, precise perspective control and a close reading of light and time — none of this is showy work. But the resulting image is what allows the architecture to be conveyed for what it truly is.
Career & Background
- 1984.11
- Born in Nakatsu, Oita Prefecture, Japan
- 2007.03
- Graduated from Nishinippon Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Systems
- 2007.10
- Appointed Police Officer, Oita Prefectural Police — served in Traffic Enforcement, the Foreign Affairs Section of the Security Division, Mobile Patrol and Detention Management
- 2016.10
- Resigned from Oita Prefectural Police
- 2017.04
- Enrolled at Tokyo College of Photography
- 2019.03
- Graduated from Tokyo College of Photography
- 2019.04
- Joined Nacása & Partners Inc., photographing architecture and interiors
- 2023.05
- Established TERAKAWA Photo Office. Executive Committee Member, The Japan Institute of Architects (JIA), Kanagawa Chapter; Member, Japan Australia New Zealand Society (JANZ)
Office
- Name
- TERAKAWA Photo Office
- Established
- May 2023
- Address
- Prestige Fukasawa 303, 4-7-26 Fukasawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-0081, Japan
- [email protected]
- Hours
- Weekdays 9:00 – 18:00 (JST)
- Clients
- Architecture firms, developers, contractors, educational institutions, general construction companies
- Inquiries
- International inquiries welcome
- Follow
- Profiles
- Wonderful MachineArchinectArchiloversLinkedIn
Nine years of evidence, then a camera.
Before photography I spent nine years as a police officer with the Oita Prefectural Police, working in traffic enforcement, the foreign affairs section of the security division, mobile patrol and custody administration. It is an unusual route into architecture, and it left one habit that has proved more useful than anything else: a record is worth what its accuracy is worth. A photograph that flatters a building and misstates it has failed at the only job that mattered.
I trained at Tokyo College of Photography, then joined Nacása & Partners — one of the long-established architectural and interior photography studios in Japan — photographing architecture and interiors before establishing my own practice in Setagaya, Tokyo in 2023.
On the commissioning side of the table.
I sit on the executive committee of the Kanagawa chapter of the Japan Institute of Architects, the national professional body for architects in Japan. It is not a photography credential, and that is the point: it means the people I spend time with are the people who commission this work, and the conversations are about what a practice actually needs from a set of images rather than about cameras.
Drone work is carried out under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism — obtained for the airspace, location and method of operation in question. Where a project sits in a densely inhabited district or near an airport, that approval is what makes the aerial possible at all, and it needs lead time.
One set of hands, start to finish.
Every commission is shot, processed, selected and delivered by me. For larger buildings I bring assistants, but the grade and the final edit stay in one pair of hands, so a set of thirty images reads as one building photographed once.
Verticals are held true. The hour of a shoot is decided from the orientation of the building rather than from the convenience of the schedule. RAW processing, perspective correction and colour grading are included in the fee rather than charged as extras, because a file that has not had them is not finished work.