In the December/January issue of Monocle Issue # 39 is one of my current shoots. We traveled north to shoot the Kenzo estate nestled in the Napa Valley. Kenzo Sujimoto a video games mogul and one of Japan’s most successful business men is one of the founders of Capcom that spawned titles such as ‘Streetfighter’ and ‘Resident Evil’. He was quite the character to shoot. Very gracious in that Japanese sort of way. When he laughed his smile was wide and his eyes almost disappeared. He was obviously enjoying his latest business venture.
In the end the magazine went with the portrait of him with the wine glass but my favorite was the one below because it pretty much summed up his lighthearted persona. With a 1,600 hectare estate nestled in the Napa hills it was no wonder he was smiling.
I didn’t tell him how upset I was at his country’s practice of hunting whales and how deeply it disturbs me. Now I wonder what he would have said. For some reason with a smile like that I imagine in my head he’d be on the side of the whales. I feel that this assumption I have of most Japanese people is indeed correct.
Please call your Japanese embassies and consulates wherever you are in the world and ask them to stop the hunt.
In the Monocle November Issue #38 is a shoot of the residence of Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic. Bailey and Petravic are owners of Heath, a bay area ceramics industry in existence since the 1940′s. Focus of the assignment was the design elements of the home. I also took their portrait which didn’t run in the final spread but which I like and included here.
The state of our oceans is no secret. The facts are there if you’d like to digest them. Sustaining 90% of the world’s biodiversity the ocean environment and it’s life are being systematically wiped out. The ocean is being treated like an industry and to those who wish to treat it that way it is worth $20 trillion annually in ecological goods and services. 90% of the big fish in the sea are gone. And the nation of Japan is at the forefront of the battle between the fishing industry and the battle to save life in our oceans.
In the small town of Taiji on Japan’s southern coast in a national park a handful of fishermen are slaughtering hundreds of thousands of dolphins by driving them into an area notoriously known as the cove, spearing them and slitting their throats. The issue was brought to millions by the daring and shocking feature documentary ‘The Cove’. Those that don’t get used as meat (which has levels of mercury) are sold to aquariums and spared for the multi billion dollar marine park entertainment industry. To add to Japan’s crimes against nature is the issue of their continual violation of the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 moratorium on whaling. Japan using a loophole in the treaty that allows taking whales on the basis of ‘scientific research’ hunts down and harpoons to death hundreds of whales in the waters off Antarctica. In 2010 the Japanese issued themselves with a quota of 935 minke whales, 50 endangered fin whales and 50 endangered humpback whales of which they butchered 528. They do this in the waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary again in violation of an international conservation law established to protect the area in 1994.
So recently I’ve decided to take to the streets and auditoriums with my camera to document the movement to stop the slaughter.
On October 21st a bunch of us spilled into the David Brower Center to hear Ric O’ Barry the activist from Earth Island Institute featured in The Cove. O’ Barry spoke about the ongoing situation in Taiji and his efforts to meet with fishermen and officials in Taiji to broker an agreement that will signal a complete cessation of the killing of dolphins. O’ Barry has been successful in the Solomon islands where he convinced tribal chiefs to terminate the dolphin slaughter by subsidizing them to participate in sustainable projects. A few days later many of us found ourselves together again to hear Captain Paul Watson founder of Sea Shepherd talk on all the threats facing our oceans. Watson has worked tirelessly for more than 35 years to stop all illegal whaling, dolphins massacres, seal hunts and on other animal rights issues across the globe. Watson has plenty of enemies but to him and those that support him this doesn’t deter them because usually it means they’re being affective.
The environmental movement needs figures like O’Barry and Watson whose direct action tactics and unflinching determination have saved thousands of animals and are changing the way those responsable for the slaughter view these amazing creatures. In one respect we are all repsonsible when we don’t speak out against these crimes. Nature is not anyone’s property to do as they please with. It is the right of everyone to a planet with healthy biodversity and ecosystems. It is the right of animals to not be tortured and brutalized in this way. It is their right to live. While they can’t defend themselves it’s up to us to defend them from ourselves.
Please get out and add your voice to the cause on Nov 5th which is Worldwide Anti Whaling Day. Events are being held at Japanese embassies and consulates in 62 cities in 23 countries across the globe. Find one near you and show up. It will be one of the best things you’ve done this year. Do it for the whales.
@kfc_colonel is advertising it's 'world famous recipes'. Secret.. because if you knew what was in it you wouldn't touch it with a barge poleFebruary 5, 2012 6:56
It's called a #Stonepine. #trees #California #carmel http://t.co/4EyoQKzHFebruary 2, 2012 4:34
said goodbye to old stomping grounds today http://t.co/A3sCxAZPFebruary 1, 2012 6:16
