For this piece I chose my good friend Misato, otherwise known as Diva Misato. Misato is 21 years old and was born in Fukuoka.Misato is unlike any other Japanese friend I have. She loud and outgoing, constantly posing for photos, has a love of hip hop music and American culture which is often shown through her facial expressions and vocabulary. Twice she has studied abroad in America to better her English, and I assume this is where her attitude and mannerisms come from! But the most unique thing able Misato is she is 177cm tall, the gentle giant! At least twice on every outing we go on, whether it be shopping, clubbing or at a restaurant she is constantly told that “your Japanese is very good, how long have you been studying?”
Just last weekend, we were at a market in Kyoto and the sales man said easy Japanese words trying to sell his food, slowly yelling “sushi, sushi, sashimi, sashimi” and we said “nijonjin! Nijonjin” pointing at Misato. They are always apologetic and embarrassed to hear this! But the sashimi looked delicious!
Left:
"Sashimi! Sashimi!"
Right:
Glasses. Check.
Peace Sign. Check.
Nails. Check...
Looks pretty Japanese to me!
Aside from studying at Gaidai, she also studies hair and makeup in Osaka on the weekends. Every day she comes to school with fun and crazy makeup this is where the idea for the photo originated. She is very easy going so it wasn’t too hard to persuade her to take of half a face of makeup! What do you think? I think she looks great both ways, but I love seeing Japanese girls without makeup! It’s so rare!
I think you picked a great person for your portrait assignment. Your photos really emphasize her interesting personality. I like the different looks in the two shots. In a way it reminds me of the work of Tomoko Sawada who did an interesting experiment in her ID400 series of photos. She dressed herself up as 400 different young Japanese women and took pictures of herself in photo booths. Perhaps you can do a similar thing with Misato.
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