Piggybacking

Posted by Mike Cash (Kiryu, Japan) on 10 July 2007 in Sport & Recreation and Portfolio.

One day recently in Tokyo's popular Odaiba district, I happened across a group of people engaged in a photo shoot. At first, I thought I had come across a crew doing a photo spread for a men's magazine (I have twice encountered crews shooting porno movies).

But when I noticed that there was not one person with a camera but instead about four or five, I quickly realized that I had stumbled across a photography club which had hired a model from a modelling agency and they were just enjoying a pleasant Saturday afternoon doing some very nice outdoor portraits.

Since I hadn't kicked in on paying the model's fee and since I wasn't part of the group, I couldn't take part in shooting the model. But there was no reason I couldn't shoot the people shooting the model.

I kept back 20 or 30 feet and none of the photographers seemed to mind, nor did the model (she waved to me). With all their multi-thousand dollars worth of cameras and lenses, filling huge camera bags, they must have thought the foreigner with the antique bellows camera on a wriststrap unspeakably quaint.

Camera: Wester Autorol medium format folder
Film: Fujichrome Velvia

VFXY Photos