A record of
completed work.
A selection of completion, residential, public, aerial and model photography made across Tokyo and Japan. For the full portfolio, the Folio PDF is available to download.
Selected Works
Educational Complex / Aerial
- Typology
- Educational facility
- Subject
- Aerial, exterior
- Location
- Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Flown under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Why this frame
Photographed from directly overhead, a building reads as a site plan and nothing more. Here the overlapping arcs of the plan were the subject, so I held the altitude down and searched for an oblique angle at which the elevations and the sense of scale both survive. The difficulty is that this angle collapses with a few metres of drift. Aerial work is the act of finding, in mid-air, the single position from which a building reads as a volume.
What had to be solved
I waited for a day when the conditions lined up. Even in clear weather a high sun flattens the shading across the roof, while a low sun drags shadows over the building. The flight was timed to the window in which the permit conditions, the weather and the fall of the shadows all overlapped.
Private Residence / Living
- Typology
- Detached house
- Subject
- Interior, living room
- Location
- Setagaya, Tokyo
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
An interior is decided by how much difference you allow between the light outside the window and the light within the room. Blowing out the exterior makes the room read cleanly, but it erases the setting the house stands in. I wanted the garden to remain continuous with the room, so I chose the hour at which the outdoor light settles into balance with the interior, and worked before the shadows of the furniture had drawn out.
What had to be solved
It was less that light was scarce than that its direction changed quickly. The state I wanted did not hold for long, so the camera position was fixed in advance and, once the light arrived, I worked without touching the framing.
Cultural Pavilion / Twilight
- Typology
- Cultural facility, public architecture
- Subject
- Aerial, twilight
- Location
- Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Flown under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Why this frame
A twilight exterior comes down to a single point of balance: the moment the interior lighting and the luminance of the sky meet. From sunset until the sky loses its density there are only about twenty usable minutes. Miss that point and either the sky blows out and the silhouette dissolves into the background, or the sky falls away and only the windows float. The altitude and the angle were settled while it was still light; after sunset I held the position and followed exposure alone.
What had to be solved
In the air the aircraft is never perfectly still, so simply holding the same framing becomes the problem. I flew the position before the window opened so that it was already in the hand, then took enough frames during it to guarantee a usable result. Available flight time runs about as long as twilight itself, which leaves no room to hesitate.
Residential Lounge / Interior
- Typology
- Detached house
- Subject
- Interior, natural light
- Location
- Kinuta, Setagaya, Tokyo
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
This room read as two different spaces depending on whether the light was reaching it. I judged that the architect's intent lay on the side where the light comes in, so the shoot was set to the hour at which that state appears. In interiors there is light that will come if you wait, and light that will not come that day. I read the orientation of the windows against the drawings, then visited at that hour to confirm it before fixing the time.
What had to be solved
A single site visit was not enough. After seeing how the light travelled through the room I rebuilt the shooting schedule around it. Time spent here is what removes hesitation on the day itself.
Pediatric Lounge / Interior
- Typology
- Healthcare facility, paediatric
- Subject
- Interior, natural light
- Location
- Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
The day was overcast. Waiting for clear weather was an option, but the soft light of a cloudy day suited this space. It is a place made for children, and even planes with the colour of the timber coming through honestly felt closer to the architect's intent than hard shadow would have been. You cannot choose the weather, but you can read the character of that day's light and turn it to account.
What had to be solved
Under cloud the quantity of light shifts through the day. I secured the necessary frames while the thickness of the cloud held steady, and kept alternative framings ready in case the conditions moved.
Architectural Model / Section
- Typology
- Architectural model, study
- Subject
- Model, section
- Location
- Inagi, Tokyo
- Year
- 2025
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, lighting built on site
Why this frame
What separates model photography from architecture is that you do not wait for light, you build it. How the model is lit therefore is what you choose to show of it. For this section model, legibility of the internal layers came first: one dominant source, set so that planes facing in different directions separate in tone. Lifting everything evenly would have destroyed any sense of scale, so certain faces were deliberately allowed to fall away.
What had to be solved
Model materials are thin, and too much fill light makes them look like paper. I built several states, varying the balance of hard and soft light, and chose the one that still reads as a building rather than as a model.
Civic Pavilion / Roof Structure
- Typology
- Civic and public facility
- Subject
- Detail, roof structure
- Location
- Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
The roof structure was the subject, so the priority was keeping the rhythm of the members legible. Looking up, if the light strikes only one face of the timber the others sink and the continuity of the frame is lost. Neither front-lit nor back-lit: I chose the state in which the light wraps onto the sides of the members. A frame only reads as structure once the eye can follow it as a line.
What had to be solved
Beneath a roof the range of brightness widens sharply. How much sky enters the frame decides how far the shadows fall away, so I stepped back until the structure held before settling the composition.
Zoological Pavilion / Canopy
- Typology
- Zoological facility, public architecture
- Subject
- Exterior, canopy
- Location
- Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
Even when the roof is the protagonist, photographing the roof alone fails to say what the place is for. The condition here was that the reach of the canopy and the depth of the space beneath it should be visible at once. The site is surrounded by trees, so I looked for the distance at which the greenery does not conceal the building and yet the building still reads as sitting within its setting.
What had to be solved
At an outdoor public building the light and the flow of visitors both move at once. Rather than waiting indefinitely for an empty frame, I took the necessary shots in short passes so that the selection could be made afterwards.
Inclusive Public Space / Night
- Typology
- Public facility
- Subject
- Aerial, night
- Location
- Yamagata, Yamagata Prefecture
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Flown under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Why this frame
Seen from directly above, this site becomes a single figure of interlocking curves. What I was after was the state in which the lighting grazes only the edges of those curves, so that the form lifts off the ground. Before the sky goes fully dark, blue still holds in the ground and sets up a contrast against the amber of the lights; once it is fully dark, the lit areas separate out and the figure stops reading. I chose the window in which the boundary between light and shadow resolves most clearly, and fixed the altitude and the true overhead angle while it was still light. The vehicle light trails running along the edge of the frame were kept in, as a sign that this building sits within the movement of the city.
What had to be solved
At night the attitude of the aircraft is hard to read by eye and distances to surrounding obstacles are harder to judge. I flew the same route in daylight to lock the altitude and the path, so that on the night itself the aircraft only had to go to a position already decided. Reducing the number of judgements made in the dark is what keeps the flight safe.
Project Album / Bound
- Typology
- Project album
- Subject
- Hardcover binding, product shot
- Location
- Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Record photography of the finished album
Why this frame
Delivering the files is not where the work ends. Completion photographs are referred back to long after handover, so there are occasions when the images need to be fixed on paper and kept at hand. This is the completion photography from the same project bound as a hardcover album, sequenced on the assumption that the architect or the client will open it on a desk and move through the building in order.
What had to be solved
Print behaves differently from a screen: shadows close up and colour is pulled by the paper. Rather than sending the files as delivered, they are adjusted for the specific stock and binding before imposition. Format, paper and binding are decided in discussion for each project.
Multi-Family Residence / Facade
- Typology
- Multi-family residence
- Subject
- Exterior facade, low angle
- Location
- Shinjuku, Tokyo
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
Photograph a multi-family facade from far enough away and it disappears among its neighbours; move too close and all that remains is a pattern of cladding. This building was composed of stacked horizontal layers, so I looked up from below to catch that repetition running upward. In the city centre the distance you can step back is limited, which means that where you choose to stand decides almost the whole composition.
What had to be solved
Looking up makes a building lean backwards in the frame. Perspective was corrected to hold the verticals, and refined until the upper storeys no longer tapered and the spacing of the layers read evenly.
Conceptual Model / White
- Typology
- Architectural model, conceptual
- Subject
- Model, white
- Location
- Inagi, Tokyo
- Year
- 2025
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, lighting built on site
Why this frame
With an all-white model, form is decided entirely by how it is lit. With no colour or material information to carry it, the tonal difference between planes becomes the outline of the architecture. The condition here was that the overlapping volumes should read, so the light was brought in at an angle that separates each face in tone. Kill the shadow entirely and it looks like a plan drawing; push it too hard and the material of the model itself begins to show.
What had to be solved
White loses its edge against a white ground, so the background was held a step darker than the model to keep the silhouette from dissolving into it.
Heritage Site / Top View
- Typology
- Cultural heritage, historic building
- Subject
- Aerial, top view
- Location
- Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Flown under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Why this frame
A top view speaks less about a building than about where the building stands. Here the subject was the site sitting within a green, contoured landscape, so I looked straight down and chose the altitude at which the shape of the roof and the surrounding canopy read together. When the terrain is the subject, only the top view will carry it.
What had to be solved
Where there are many trees, the safe launch and landing positions are settled before anything else. Within the routes that satisfy the permit conditions, I narrowed down in advance the position at which the intended altitude and a true overhead view could both be achieved.
Civic Facility / Top View
- Typology
- Civic and public facility
- Subject
- Aerial, top view
- Location
- Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Flown under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Why this frame
This is the kind of building whose roof form states the plan directly. A straight overhead view therefore conveys the design intent in the shortest possible way. At this scale the whole cannot be held in a single frame from the ground, so it is a photograph only the air can produce. Climb too high and the building disappears into its surroundings, so I stopped just before the roof gave up the frame.
What had to be solved
In a top view the slightest deviation from level bends the straight lines of the roof. I matched the attitude of the aircraft to the horizontal of the frame, flew several passes at the same altitude, and selected the frame with the least distortion.
Residential Entrance / Hall
- Typology
- Detached house
- Subject
- Interior, entrance hall
- Location
- Kinuta, Setagaya, Tokyo
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
The entrance is where you first stand on coming into a house. Here a high opening across the far wall brings the sky and the green of the garden into view. So rather than showing floor area, the priority was that the line of sight should run straight through to the outside, and that the composition itself should carry it. The space is symmetrical, and shifting even slightly off centre breaks the whole thing. I stood square to the axis of depth and set the camera at a height at which the verticals from floor to ceiling stand honestly.
What had to be solved
A pale stone floor throws light back hard, and at the hours when direct sun enters, the reflection takes the tonal range with it. I worked to a level of light at which the shadows of the trees still fall softly across the floor, and looked for an exposure in which neither the veining of the stone nor the colour of the flowers gives way. There is nowhere to step back in a space this size, and going wide stretches the near floor so that the room reads larger than it is, so I held to a focal length that stops short of exaggeration. Making a room look larger than it is counts as a failure of record.
House in Setagaya / Facade
- Typology
- Detached house
- Subject
- Exterior, surface texture
- Location
- Setagaya, Tokyo
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, perspective corrected
Why this frame
On this house the rough texture of the external wall is the expression itself. Recording the form was therefore not enough; the condition was that the feel of the surface under the hand should carry through the frame. Texture emerges most clearly when light arrives at a grazing angle. I chose the hour at which fine shadows form in the relief, and worked before the surface flattened out.
What had to be solved
Holding texture makes the accuracy of focus show directly in the result. Where on the wall the plane of focus is placed changes what you see, so I tried a range of focus positions across the near and far parts of the surface and selected the one that keeps the grain even across the whole facade.
Heritage Model / Wooden
- Typology
- Architectural model, traditional timber
- Subject
- Model, timber
- Location
- Inagi, Tokyo
- Year
- 2025
- Method
- Tripod-mounted, lighting built on site
Why this frame
In a model of traditional timber architecture, each individual member is the structure. I avoided the directions in which the frame collapses into itself and looked for an angle from which the relationship of post and beam can be followed. The light was kept soft enough that the colour of the timber does not sink, while retaining enough direction for shadow to catch on the cut faces of the members. Light it evenly and a timber model becomes a brown mass.
What had to be solved
Because the members are fine, strong light burns out the detail and weak light lets the depth fall away. A secondary, low-level source was added alongside the main light so that information survives in the deeper parts of the model.
Urban Landscape / Twilight
- Typology
- Commercial facility
- Subject
- Aerial, twilight
- Location
- Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- Year
- 2024
- Method
- Flown under the applicable flight permission and approval from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Why this frame
The site sits on a hill with a view out over central Yokohama. Rather than photographing the building alone, I chose a framing that brings in the lights of the city, the Landmark Tower among them, as the background. At twilight the silhouette in the foreground and the lights in the distance can hold within the same frame. Once the sky goes fully dark the foreground sinks; while it is still bright, the city lights never come up.
What had to be solved
The difference in brightness between foreground and distance is wide, so which of the two you expose for is the decision. I worked from the point at which the city lights stop short of saturating, then refined until information still remained in the building in front.