Earlier on this year I photographed the renowned New York based Tattoo artist Tim Kern who is a co-founder of the tribulation tattoo studio in Manhattan’s East village.
He was in town on business and a bit of pleasure and I was asked to photograph him for an American magazine, but in the end that turned out not to come together and some of the photos ended up being used in J-select magazine for a story about the area I photographed him in, rather than the man himself. Funny how things work out that way.
He was a really nice guy, maybe a bit scary to people at first glance, but I found him to be very well educated, warm and friendly. Although he said he wasn’t too big a fan of being photographed, he was pretty good in front of the camera and didn’t mind spending an hour or so going around different locations in Shinjuku, from the backstreets of Golden Gai, to the bright lights of Kabuki cho and ending up in the narrow lanes of omoideyokocho which haven’t changed in the last 80 years. We finished off the shoot in a restaurant where he posed for snaps whilst eating some grilled lizards (damn tasty too) which was brilliant for close up shots. The scenery everywhere we went really suited his style, the Shinjuku area of Tokyo is a great venue for night portraits, it’s dark and brooding, the neon burns the night sky, the place comes alive when the sun goes down and it buzzes with life until the morning sun rises. One of my favourite areas of Tokyo to hang out in.
12 Comments
Nice shot mate, love the close up lizard eating portrait, though my favourite must be the iphone self portrait. So good to see you are keeping busy inspires us all!!!
Damon
Love the shot of him holding up the iPhone and shooting himself with “GEEK” on his hand. The shot of him leaning against the wall with his tattooed right arm also stands out though. Some interesting jobs you’ve had and you’ve handled them with aplomb, which I’d like to attribute to you being Scottish, but its probably just because you’re a great photographer. Damn! But I bet being a Scot had SOMETHING to do with it!
That’s the beer talking….
Damon, I do like the iPhone self portrait too, nice image but I have shot so many people in the same spot it kind of feels odd to see the same background over and over…it is a good spot though.
Stu, being Scottish does help I think. We invented colour photography and due to the bad Scottish weather we are predisposed to picking up skills which can take our mind off the rain, usually drinking, glassing people or for the less violent, photography.
Cool portraits. A lot of attitude and works well with the location. The narrow back streets have always been my favorite part of Tokyo.
Paule
http://www.paulepictures.com
http://www.paulepictures.com/blog
Awesome portraits, I love that shot of him leaning against the wall. Very cool!
I can’t find your “Contact” link so i allow myself a quick stop here to tell you another thanks, Will. I read all your tips about you, camera 5D, and so on and i was very interested in How to sell your photos and the time you spent sharing those clever advices. I’m on the verge of preparing a portfolio of my fav pix and could not decide how many photos and how to choose them, reading you was really stimulating and I’ll remember. Many thanks for your talent (i’ll be back commenting your photos & texts) and for your generosity. See you, dear.
Hi karine,
I don’t have a contact link in this site, just the RSS feed in the address bar at the top of the page. Also, you can find me on twitter where I stick up my new posts.
I will put up some more advice on portfolios etc soon, I’ve had a few questions. I look forward to you coming back.
Will
Great images and they each have a lot of visual interest and good light! Very nice work on these!
speaking of great portraits!!! wow, but then again you are a professional and i’m just a hack, my husband used to say that i wasn’t good at all at taking pictures of people, so your comment meant alot to me….. anyway, looks like a cool guy to take pics of hope you had fun!! great shots!!!!
i really like your shot of tim kern taking a picture of himself by his iphone. it is perfect because it matches tim’s tattoo “Geek” which is awesome!
i noticed that you are requested photographer to capture tattooed folks. i cannot wait to see more…
A series of AWESOME shots you’ve made of this wonderful artist, Will! Great work!!
It’ll go to print in Tatowier magazine- they just take f-n foreverrrr, but it’s normal for tattoo mags to take this long.
Sorry about the wait!!