Fabulous Ricoh camera from 1997. It was the most luxurious model from Ricoh. Featured their famous GR Lens 28mm f/2.8.

Selected neons shot in 2004 in the Kabukicho/Shinjuku area including Shinjuku JR station, Golden Gai and Kabukicho.

Waster guy in phone booth, Iidabashi 2004.

A fine night event at Ikebukuro Cyber in 2000 feat. Art Marju Duchain. Part-ritual, part-concert. Outstanding personalities.

Girl with ice cream at Rock in Japan 2004.

A batch of TECHNO tracks for the 2nd video mix!

Osaka 2001. While on tour with Loveform and Otas Logi-c. Glico is still around.

Decided I’d upload a Video set for once. This one covers my new-wave years. Includes Siouxsie & the Banshees, Visage, Buck-Tick, Bauhaus and the likes.

Shibuya, Fall 2000. I bet the guy who AD’d this product knew what he was doing.

I shot this on CHANEL GINZA’s rooftop cafe!

Had the chance to visit La Tour d’argent Tokyo a while ago. Sorry for the crappy shot, it’s an undercover expedition.

Hirofumi (ex. Eins:Vier) plays acoustic with his Suzuki Bed Music unit at Shinjuku’s Naked Loft (the acoustic live house near Korean town / Okubo). A long career span over 20 years. Watch a video below…

Just dick.

In the 90′s Laforet was the cutting edge of eccentric fashion in Harajuku, with tons of interesting designers such as Batsu, Jean-Paul Gaultier or Atelier Boz. Now look at the entrance and you’ll understand how conservative and formatted Harajuku has become.

There’s only one curry I dig in Harajuku, it’s Piazza Eco-Farm’s vegetable curry! It’s the best organic shop in Harajuku. Been going there for years. Try it out.

This guy was a blast. Shibuya, Senta gai, December 31st 2008 before going to Womb. Full kogaru skirt”n’socks style 10 years after the boom.

Club Indies Shinjuku circa 2000. At the time, one of the meccas for visual kei connoisseurs.

Hysteric Glamour store @Harajuku 2007.

30 Seconds to Mars June 2010 Switzerland.

Away from my bure boke days, this is complete bure bure in Kabukicho :-)

Those girls don’t have any hair.

Winter brings. Les Halles. Outside

Hey, if you are a Ricoh GR (analog or digital) photographer, shoot black & white, city street snap and want to be published in a book, drop a mail at publishing [at] 51269.net. It doesn’t matter where you’re from as long as you’re shooting GR b/w street snap. The book project is in the works (for release end of 2010) with a number of photographers (15~20). It’s a Japanese B5 size hardcover, pantone black offset print, 250/300 pages, worldwide distribution (online and retail). It’s going to be an exciting project with lots of good artists and a great way to promote your work.

Send a mail with some of your work (include some photos or send a link to your website, flickr etc.). Don’t forget to put your name and which Ricoh camera(s) you use. You can fill this form in order to receive the Progress Report: http://eepurl.com/sHpx

We won’t answer questions in this thread. Contact us by e-mail for any info.

My previous Porter “Tanker” bag has been a loyal friend for about 10 years. Spot it here at Rock in Japan 2007 under a blazing sun and lo-top black canvas Converse.

It’s only after I took this photograph I realized its level of obscenity, with the gyarus and the hotdog …

Numbers.

Clash of colors.

“In the Club” is an experimental black and white video by Loveform.
A two hour experimental video with nothing but dark lights, strobes, people, sweat and bass… ATMOS!
You can listen and download a 320kbps quality mix at Soundcloud, my favourite place to share music:
soundcloud.com/basecold/loveform-in-the-club

Download cover, tracklist and photos here :
mediafire.com/file/w0mi1zgldzo/intheclub_cover_10pp.pdf

This was taken circa 2000 in Shibuya. 2 ganguros showing the world how black they could be.

An all-nighter in Geneva, Summer 2009. Great party, nice sound, fun people. Illegal party by the lake. I miss summer days. Shot with Ricoh GR and Raynox semi-fisheye. Check the weird shape (flash + fisheye).

Seems like every winter I give A.P.C. another chance. This store is in Paris near le Marais.

Cute guys.

Dawn. Going back home from work in Kabukicho. The host never sleeps.

Can you believe this picture? Yes? No? Well, this shot is a rare view of Kabukicho’s night entertainment and sextrade center (well, one of its numerous streets). It was shot at 5:00AM and the streets are almost empty! This never happens in the “floating world”, except… in December! As the weather gets a bit colder, there is much less partying in the streets at dawn. Now you know.

On November 11th, 30 SECONDS TO MARS were supposed to play a soldout gig at la Cigale in Paris. The gig was cancelled and postponed to November 18th at another venue, l’Elysee Montmartre. It was quite a surprise a band that does arenas in the US, and did le Zenith in Paris a while ago would play such a small club (capacity about 1200). They are actually doing Bercy next march (capacity 17,000!), it’s going to be huge! Sorry for the cheap iphone photo, it’s all I got. Great performance, the new songs are promising. Can’t wait for the new album “THIS IS WAR” to come out. Their latest single “Kings & Queens“, a fixed-ride extravaganza, is a must see. Directed by Jared Leto as usual.

Coffee time this afternoon, at a terrace near the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tricky just walked by. He was on the phone, thick accent I tell ya.

This season, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is everywhere in Paris! Not only he decorated BHV (Hotel de Ville) but the Drugstore Publicis (Champs Elysees) as well! Once again, it’s a pop colors invasion, gorgeous. Bravo JC/DC!

The other day, I was invited to the “Prix BMV” photo exhibition @ Paris Photo. The photo contest’s purpose wasn’t to promote new and upcoming talents, it was a “gallery’s competition” for which only photographers who are already established and exhibiting at Paris Photo could get in and win some 12,000€. A way for the galleries to get some money back off their investment (renting space at Paris Photo, damn I hate business). In other words, not likely to see anything new and exciting, which was the case. The theme was so vague that you could exhibit pretty much anything from your collection. It just had to be “a unique moment in your life”. To prove my point, a couple pictures were shot… in the 80′s! Talk about giving the contestants a theme… Anyway, I shot this photo of Tonie Marshall staring at this dog, or the dark skies? She’s like, one of my heroes, from back in the days when she used to be in “Ca c’est Palace”.

An afternoon in the black hole, the CERN , that is. Large Hadron Collider beauty experience. Thanks to W.

On our road to Aokigahara forest (suicide sweep!), april 2001 with Koji, Bovier, Tatsumi and Sebastien. That’s the day I shot “Deathmap“, a four minute short movie clip for the track “Zoetrope apartment” by Loveform (yes, that’s me). Boy we had fun!

Mariage Freres… you probably know it’s the tea I have everyday. But there’s more! There are wonderful Mariage cakes too! Each of them has tea in it, either on the biscuit, mousse or else. Yummy. Photo : Mariage Freres Ginza.

Sometimes, before I leave for a NO-SLEEP NO-REST night in Kabukicho and Golden Gai, I stop by Lucky Camera. They have such a wide selection of lenses and cameras. They’re great. Pay them a visit if you’re a vintage camera enthusiast, they have everything, and at a good price.

It’s amazing how much dirt you get in Shinjuku’s backstreets. Tokyo is like a movie set. Front: clean, Back: dirty. The first door does looks like the one in the movie “Pulse” (aka Kairo, by Kurosawa Kiyoshi)

I mean, come on, is this a crime scene or something? Almost like a christian cross upside down, made of human blood :-)

Harajuku is (or was!) full of small independent fashion stores. It’s my second home in Tokyo. I like it there, be it for lunch (Yaffa used to have an eatery 100 meters away), coffee (usually at Eco-farm or at the fabulous Design Festa building) or fashion-hunting of course (too many to mention). Lad musician is one of my weekly stops, with a sympathetic, simple and sober shop. I like its wooden terrace, great rock music inside and knowledgeable staff. If you’re interested in Lad musician’s clothes, check their new collection here.

Triceratops live Summer 2007 at Rock in Japan Festival. Going to the moon.

This morning I got up at 5:00am and went to the 56th (and seasons’ last) “Concert de l’Aube” (Dawn’s concert) at the local beach called “Les Bains des Paquis”. A nice mixture of music, performance, impro, play etc by Geneva’s “Les Louves” (is that correct?). It was a bit chilly, but the atmosphere and good mood made up for it. At the end of the show, some of the musicians took a dip in the lake, that was fun. See you next summer, you concerts de l’aube!

that night, what night? golden gai as usual. interpol?

Had the chance to witness Mylene’s latest monster show in Geneva, both dates, 4th and 5th of September. Huge show. Dark dark dark. Can’t wait for the DVD to come out later this year.

Can’t wait to see if they’re going to lower their prices. After all, an M8.2 + a decent lens costs 18’000USD!

Uniqlo’s UT Harajuku store when it opened.

STOIC VIOLENCE? This record off my 7″ collection. GUDON “Stoic Violence” 7″ 1986 VAP Inc. Stunning artwork. It was in 1984-85 that I discovered the great quality of japanese graphic design. Stuff you wouldn’t see anywhere else.

It’s been a few years since NBHD Harajuku was revamped using material from different artists. One artist is Charles Krafft from Seattle. Known for his collaborations with the legendary artist group NSK (Laibach etc.), his work displayed at NBHD is called “disasterware”. The pieces are scary, beautiful, disgusting, poetic, revolting, peaceful… so many different emotions comes to mind when staring at his disasterware! It fits the store quite well, as there are very few lights and the interior design is super dark (pentagram made of police security wooden barriers anyone? vintage motorcycles, super retro 2 proto sound sytem…). Visit NBHD and see for yourself! Images on this post are : Storefront of NBHD. To see the disasterware, click on C. Krafft’s link.

For Loveform’s next audio/video mix called “In the Club”, I took a few preview screenshots (off the video). The 60 (or so) minutes video was shot at Club Unit Daikanyama / Tokyo, January 2009. More to come… In the meantime, check Loveform’s website for the previous video “Minimal.Hard“.

Ok I know it’s a bit off-topic, but couldn’t resist. This is Dieter Rams, talking about the design revolution! It’s a time-trip, way pre-Clockwork Orange era.

I used to be a big fan of A.P.C.’s clothes in the 90′s. This A.P.C.’s Underground store in Harajuku. In front of Headporter and on the same building as HP.Annex. It’s not as big as their Daikanyama’s store, but it’s nice too.

A nice evening at some Golden Gai bar with Ashtom and great photographer Agake Masahito. The bar had several great b/w photos and spotted Moriyama Daido in a few of them, amongst other artists. That’s because the owner of the bar is a photographer and used to be Daido’s student !

John Hughes, my teenage years were rocked by your brilliant films, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s day off, Vacation, Christmas vacation, Pretty in pink, to name a few. I’ll never forget you.

A very interesting camera indeed. Check a few in-depths articles as well as the official website.

DPReview
Digital Camera HQ
The Online Photographer
Steve Huff Photo
StudioVoice Artistlife site

Official website (jp)
Official website (eng)

This is my friend Kenichi, he’s from Tokyo, he’s a game designer/producer, he’s into Ricoh GRDII too. We met at Design Festa in Tokyo, spring 2008. He saw my camera and we instantly clicked, we shot eachother with our GRDII. Instant friendship. Kenichi has a dog too, and he’s very cool indeed (ok I love dogs). We share some similar taste in 80′s music and 90′a techno clubs like Space Lab Yellow (they closed down unfortunately). Here’s some of Kenichi’s works. And you can read and watch his Ricoh photo blogging at Route24, his independent company. Works: Newtonica, ????DS (hilarious, try it really!), iClick. Oh and we met again in January at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Azabu-juban, “eat mort greens” (please support this restaurant, it’s an independent eatery with quality meals at good prices), and after that we went to Oldvine (his friend is the owner). That’s us there, by the way.

Since the beginning of No.51269 you’ve noticed the Moa 4 Cafe in pictures or talks. Well, now you know it, it’s my daily stop, my before-going-to-work headquarters in Shinjuku, before I go on a shooting spree downtown Kabukicho/Golden Gai/etc. I usually get a cheap ice coffee there. Now the problem is this: the cafe has been sold to a chain (I won’t mention here), which is lame, as it used to be an independent little trailer cafe and it’s now been replaced by a sedentary (and corporate!) structure. Shinjuku’s changing, I’m afraid.

The train’s humming makes you fall asleep.

Stoic Violence is an upcoming photo/collage/design selection based on rare 80′s japanese hardcore 7″ cover designs. Stay tuned. This is just S.O.B’s 7″ Leave me alone original cover. The designed goods are coming out soon.

Shinjuku cream.

Summer 2007, Harajuku was mgdrized. The Misfits/MGDR sticker stayed there for about a year and a half. great.

It’s finally out! the 2 hours electro extravaganza I promised last wek. That SUMMER tape you’re going to listen in your car for the next 4 or 5 weeks!

To listen or download the 320kbps dj mix, click on that blue image above! The track list is there too.
Or listen here…

Summer kiss,
Loveform

such a killer thing, being able to post a picture while on the go! thank you iPhone and thank you ricoh for the best camera on the (underground) market!

Golden gai. Its bars, its washing machines…
Too big to keep them inside.
There isn’t enough room for the clients already…
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

I am a host and since I’m a low-level one, my job is to scout for new clients in the streets of Kabukicho.

My friend from Kobeni. She likes to wear the MGDR misfits skull button, and she likes to cat fight at Dept.H parties too. She likes to cook okonomiyaki for me and give me weird drinks like “Enema” and other lethal drinks. Yes, Kobeni is like a mini-hospital bar in Golden gai, where drinks and food are served in medical flasks and plates. Now you know.

Spring 2008, these high-school girls aren’t afraid to wear the total 109-look. Little do they know what’s going on behind them. I feel like a ???. The last one on the right is so 1997.

Sometimes I shoot in color (my baby GRDII likes it too)! I like cables, always fascinated by outdoor/street cables… Harajuku Dec. 2007.

My good friend EURO (from the band SPEED-iD). We used to hang out at night. This was shot after we (Loveform + Kippu) played an all-nighter in Daikanyama (at Candlelight that is called UNIT now), summer 1998. At 5 am the weather was already wet and hot. Euro had to go to the studio to record some band (Aliene Ma’riage perhaps?).

When you’re in Shinjuku, late at night, and you’ve had one too many drinks, sometimes things happens.

In Shinjuku, there’s always tons of poster ads on top of eachother.

Random neon at night, some location, in the city (Tokyo that is).

I shot this graveyard, forest of the unholy in 2000 when Mana from Malice Mizer had a lot of money to spend… on his Omotesando fashion store MOI-MEME-MOITIE.

One of those nights at Moa dori, before going to Kabukicho for a good night shoot.

Every nation has its right-wing organization. Japan has, amongst others, the Uyoku dantai… Yes, this was shot before NOVA went down… (circa 2000).

The eyes of the night. Iidabashi 2001. A bunch of cats always hanging out, fresh.

A simple place where I show my photos,