In December I traveled to Japan to document Takako and Steve’s traditional Shinto-style wedding at the Nogi Shrine in Akasaka, Tokyo. When Takako and Steve first approached me about photographing their wedding, I was so incredibly excited that I would be able to experience and document this day for them. Over the coming months, that excitement grew and grew and grew.

Japan holds a special place in my heart. When I was 12 years old, I travelled to Japan and lived with a Japanese family on my own. I went to school whilst there and participated in lots of amazing activities and random Japanese goodness. Ever since then, I have had a love affair with the country. Throughout my teens, my host sisters and I would exchange letters through the post, they would send me all the crazy Japanese stationary and I would send them all things Australiana. I went back to Japan in 2011 and explored Toyko and Kyoto some more. I fell in love with the country a whole lot more. If you know me well, you will know of my addiction to Japanese knick-knack stores and my over consumption of Japanese food.

My favorite movie is Lost in Translation. There is something about Sofia Coppola’s work that speaks to me on so many levels, but mostly it’s the quietness and subtle undertones her work has. Possibly the reason why I connect with Lost in Translation so much is that I identify so much with the experience of being in a foreign country, from being a 12 year old kid exploring Japan to much of what my life is now, living out of hotel rooms, to all the wonderful people I get to meet through the experience of all of this, to quote Sofia – “The unexpected connections we make might not last, yet stay with us forever”.

I knew that while photographing Takako and Steve’s wedding, I wanted to capture the lovely little peculiarities about the Japanese culture that makes them so amazing and such beautiful, polite people. Lost in Translation does this so well and I knew from the moment I would be traveling to Japan to document this wedding, I too wanted that to be the essence of this body of work.

I only had a few days in Tokyo on this trip and looking back on it now, it was a whirlwind. I cant wait for my next trip back.

To Takako and Steve, it was a complete honor and privilege to be able to come to Tokyo to document your wedding day for you. A hundred thank you’s for letting me do what I do.