Harajuku in Los Angeles - Garage Studio Portraits (2022-ongoing)

My work is rooted in affection for place and culture. By chance, these merged at home when I first encountered Harajuku fashion. In 2015, I met many Angeleno J-fashion dressers at an international fashion walk in Downtown Los Angeles. Their imaginative alt streetwear captivated me—blending styles while staying true to Japanese fashion subcultures and expressing kawaii, the quality of being cute.

This encounter began Harajuku in Los Angeles, an ongoing portrait project celebrating Harajuku-inspired individuals and self-expression.

For Harajuku in Los Angeles—Garage Studio Portraits, I invite J-fashion enthusiasts to a pseudo portrait studio—actually a car garage, reflective of Los Angeles car culture—held alongside monthly Harajuku Day LA meetups. Harajuku Day brings together a welcoming, diverse J-fashion collective. These diptych portraits highlight the performative side of Harajuku fashion, showing individuals and friends representing various J-styles—decora, fairy-kei, Lolita, party-kei, and more—as they express themselves through fashion.

Series Background: Across the multi-series, I photographed over 80 members of Los Angeles’s Harajuku community and interviewed numerous individuals. Harajuku (原宿), a Tokyo neighborhood, is a center of Japanese youth culture and fashion. Spiriting FRUiTS Magazine (1997-2017)—the Japanese street-style digest tied to Harajuku’s youth—my Harajuku in Los Angeles series chronicles the creative street fashion and spirit of Los Angeles’ J-inspired individuals.

Thank you to the Los Angeles’ Harajuku community and Harajuku DayLA for their support.