While struggling to find contemporary jazz venues in Osaka, I stumbled upon Studio T-Bone, a venue supporting both live jazz and photography and decided to visit. Pianist Yukari Sekiya 関谷 友加里 and percussionist Naoto Yamagishi 山㟁直人 やまぎしなおと were improvising together. While I didn’t manage to get to know them well on that occasion, I was delighted to spend time with the creative family members running the studio. A chance encounter months later unexpectedly brought Yukari back into my mind. When I reached out to her, she responded, and I’ve now learned what a deep and inspiring artist and person she is, opening the door to possible future collaborations. It was a powerful reminder that we can’t always see right away why our intuition speaks to us. Sometimes, it may be setting something in motion far in the future or for a purpose quite different from what we imagine.
KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Select: Masahiro Usami’s (宇佐美雅浩) Community Manda-las (April 17, 2024)
On my second day in Kyoto for the KYOTOGRAPHIE Kyoto International Photography Festival, I detoured from the main exhibitions to check out Masahiro Usami (宇佐美雅浩)’s exhibition Manda-la in the KG+ Select show at the Horikawa Oike Gallery. By the time I’d left, I felt I...
Valentina Benigni — Dancing Vulnerability (Off Arles Festival 2024)
One of the exhibitions I most enjoyed visiting during my all-too-brief stay in beautiful Arles, France to take in the Les Rencontres D’Arles de la Photographie was not in the festival at all. Instead, Valentina Benigni’s solo exhibition “Dancing Vulnerability” was a...
Back to the Garden at Candy Live Jazz in Kyoto (April 17, 2024)
On my second night in Kyoto, I went to Candy Live Jazz in Gion to see the trio of Kotono Nishimura 西村琴乃 (alto and soprano sax), Yuka Yanagihara 柳原由佳 (piano), and Ayuko Ikeda 池田安友子(percussion). I was not familiar with any of them, but from the start, I found their...
You Don’t Die: The Story of Yet Another Iranian Uprising at Kyotographie, Kyoto (April 16, 2024)
I was excited to explore Kyotographie, the sprawling annual international photography festival in Kyoto. Now in its 12th year, it has become one of Asia’s largest photography festivals. It features 13 curated main exhibitions and more than 100 KG+, KG Select, and...