Interviewing Omotesando’s street fashion crews

15 Sep 2006 Category: Fashion, Features, Japan, Photography

Interviewing Omotesando’s street fashion crews

No trendy magazine can do without them: the street fashion shots! Finding out what is hot on the streets of Tokyo, countless photography crews are out every weekend waiting for the next fashion victim to cross their way. How do these street crews actually approach people? Who gets selected? What are those “temporary models” interviewed about? And how much are the photographers involved in setting new trends? PingMag spent a Saturday afternoon in Omotesando observing….

Interview by Ryotaro Bordini Chikushi
Photos and idea Jan Chipchase
Written by Uleshka

11AM - photography crews setting up: while one of the team is chosing the best free spot along the road waiting for the missing members to arrive, others already prepare questionnaires or scan the fashion crowds of the day. The sun beats down without mercy! We spot a first photographer around 45 years old dressed in black waiting hiding under the shade of the trees on the side of the road…

our first interviewee - the street photographer from Lady’s Bike

Excuse me, but could we ask you some questions about street photography?

Well, I am actually at work, so I have to keep looking out for people. If you don’t mind me rushing off at some point, go ahead!

Thanks! First of all, what sort or magazine do you work for?

When it comes to shooting on the streets, I work for Lady’s Bike, a magazine for girls only and I shoot women on bikes over 50cc wearing interesting outfits.

Interesting! So you spot them, wave them out of the traffic and ask them to have their picture taken? That works?

Well, we have to make sure that everything is safe first. We certainly don’t want to cause an accident! Many are very cooperative though and stop for us, but it is quite a tight brief: finding young women wearing interesting outfits on cool bikes cruising Omotesando…

Exciting! Not it is us interviewing the interviewers!

Are there a any who drive up and down the road to be spotted by you?

Sometimes, yes! Also, If we stop a woman on their bike, they can be accompanied by their friends with crappy bikes or boring outfits wanting to have their picture taken, too. I never quite know what to say then…

So you have any regulars?

We have a few, but their fashion is different every time and our mag is published only once a month, so nobody can spot them.

Do you mind if we take a little look into your bag? What equipment do you use?

having a look into his bag

I use my digital Nikon, a couple of different lenses and tons of memory…

Oh wow! Yes! Indeed!

tons of memory cards - indeed!

Do you customize your equipment in order to shoot “street style”? And who else is in your crew to help you?

There are 3 people in our crew: photographer, stylist and assistant. I can’t bring too much equipment, because we more around a lot. Sometimes we use a long cable for strobe light - but shooting after it got dark is usually pointless.

Why? Can’t you take some nice shots with the colorful night-lights of Tokyo or simply use a flash?

Street photography doesn’t really work at night. Sometimes the clothes are too dark to capture any detail, a black bike is hardly visible and a flash always looks very fake: it creates a black background and you loose the whole “on the streets” feeling.

extra cables and equipment in every possible pocket

I see! Do you ever have the chance to involve celebrities or models in your street shots?

We recognize them sometimes, but we can never use them for our photos, unless we contact their agency first and pay! If we stop a models without knowing they are professional, they usually warn us right away so we have to let them go…

(looking out into the distance) Sorry, but I think the others might have found someone! I better go…

Thank you so much!

We cross the street over to the Gap-shop corner. Professional models lining up with huge photography crews, stylists and a bags full of different outfits. Now this only *looks like street-photography! Two more meters down the road various “authentic-crews” are on the look out…*

We were secretly expecting a battle between them as soon as a “person of interest” would walk by… “Now! The lady in the pink croco dress, big Gucci sunglasses, waving her precious handbag!!!” - but wrong! Nobody reacted! The countless crews lining up from Harajuku’s LaForet all the way down to Omotesando knew exactly what they were looking for…

FashionSnap’s young and energetic crew

“Isn’t there a lot of competition?”, we ask a different crew of 3 guys in their early 20s sitting on the side of the road checking out people. “There are so many crews around… you must be fighting for the same person sometimes!??”

Not really! It does happens that everyone tries to take a photo of the same person and you then find him or her in a number of magazines, but most of us have very different targets, I think!

What sort of magazine do you work for then?

We work for our own website called FashionSnap. It lists photos of people on the street and cares about the fashion sense above all. We take photos of any kind of people - fashionable and conservative. We want to avoid ratings of what is trendy, but rather give our readers the option to check out real people and take their fashion sense as an advice, if they like.

What about taking a picture of us, then? Would we be suitable for your magazine?

Err… this is our assistant, who holds up numbers before each new shot, so we don’t get confused matching the right questionnaire to the right person afterwards…

taking a quick photo of the number of the interviewee before starting the photo-session makes it easier afterwards to match images and questionnaire

I see! What kind of questions do you ask your interviewees then?

Name, age, height, clothes size, where they go shopping, what brand they wear… that kind of thing. It makes it much more interesting for our readers to then find their clothes, in case they want to buy them.

filling out questionnaires

here is what FashionSnap asks their models: height, size, age, gender, how much money they like to spend on clothes….

We noticed, that pretty much every crew here simply stops people by saying “Excuse me!” and introducing the name of the magazine they work for. Handing out name cards seems to buy a lot of trust, too, but on the whole it looks fairly easy to get people involved. The big cameras in sight speak for themselves. What are the negative experiences you face?

Sometimes people don’t want to get involved when they hear, that we are an online magazine. They simply don’t trust the web and are scared that their pictures are misused for something else…

How long have you been doing street photography for and from your experience, where is it all going?

We started about a year ago. I still think that paper magazines are more influential in Japan at the moment, but when wireless LAN becomes more common and anyone can have internet anywhere, magazines like ours showing a variety of real trends will become much more influential. I am sure our magazine will really take off one day!

Good luck to you, then and thanks a lot!

different crews acting in the same spot: 1. crew looking out for potential models 2. other crew filling out questionnaires 3. again someone else packing up equipment 4. and the pool of people to chose from walking along Omotesando

While we were melting away in the heat, the photo-crews seemed to have worked out a much better flow of balancing the busy and quiet times. One always keeps an eye on the crowd, while another is shooting, filling out questionnaires with the “street-models” or taking turns relaxing.

Hello, What is the name of the magazine you work for? Do you mind if we spend some time sitting down and watching you work?

We work for a magazine called ChokiChoki - for 20 year old boys. I don’t think there is anyone interesting coming our way in the next 30 minutes, but feel free to take a seat.

a very stylish looking ChokiChoki crew

How can you be sure that the perfect person doesn’t walk by any minute? 3PM - isn’t that supposed to be the busiest time right now?

Yes, but still… I think I better have my noodles now.

What do you think about this guy over there?

Too old!

And that one? Haha..

I don’t think so……

Might this be the right person for your magazine?

After relaxing for a bit, we interviewed another slightly more professional looking crew taking pictures working for Street Jack, a fashion magazine targetting boys between 16 and 26.

What is in this green bag next to your photo equipment?

Please don’t take a photo of that! This is confidential. We are sponsored by a shoe-maker today, so we look out for interesting boys and ask them to wear those shoes with their outfit for our street-shooting.

the secret green bag on the right contains sneakers for the fashion shooting

Is it hard to find the right people? Or are there a lot of people who want to have their picture taken and walk up and down Omotesando a little too often?

Our magazine is well-known, so about 80% of all the people we ask are OK with it. There are quite a lot who really want to be in a magazine, but most of them do not want to be noticed for their fashion, but for their looks!

How influential are your photos, you think?

You can buy Street Jack anywhere in Japan and we take photos in Shibuya and Harajuku. For kids in Aomori or Kyushu for example Harajuku is the most fashionable area they could possibly imagine, so they certainly refer to the fashion we introduce to them.

street fashion pages of Street Jack magazine

What are the recent trends, then? Or what new style can you foresee?

I think fashion changes every 6 months entirely, so there will always be a lot of work for us to do…

Pretty much staying in the same spot, we watched a very busy looking team with an older, incredibly professional looking photographer and a crew exceeding the usual set of 3.

Could we ask you some questions about street photography?

You can try while I change the films of my camera. I am very busy right now!

How many people are in your crew and what sort of equipment do you normally use?

Me, the photographer, sometimes stylists, 2 girls who talk to the people on the street and fill out the questionnaires with the interviewees and a supervising coordinator. I use my digital camera normaly, since it can store a lot of images and the photos cost nothing, but for this photo shooting today I use proper roll-films, since it will get blown up to a very big size in the end.

What is the name of the magazine you are working for? A fashion magazine, I suppose?

We work for Love Photo, a magazine for couples. Japan has not been doing so well recently, so we try to find couples who really look like they are in love, to give hope and a positive feeling to our readers.

coordinator of Love Photo wearing an “I love Japan” T-shirt

Interesting! So how do you approach people? What do you ask them to do for you?

We just ask couples if they can “give us some of their happiness” for our Love Photo magazine, and they will.

And those questionnaires? What do you ask your couples about?

Just general questions: about their hobbies, where they met, how long they have been going out together…

Always interesting to see how much information people give away for a little vanity…

Surprised by this variety of crews within about 100 metres, we spot a single photographer on the other side of the road with a very small camera….

Who uses this small camera on a very much extended tri-pod?

Excuse me, but what street fashion magazine do you work for?

I only do street photography for myself. Art, you could say. I have been capturing people on the street for a couple of years now, make exhibitions… that kind of thing.

Oh! So what sort of people do you watch out for?

Just normal people, maybe boring at first sight, but with an interesting detail. I do little interviews sometimes, but it is more to study humans, really. People in the crowd - and the little bits of humaneness the reveal…

a happy street photographer taking images for his own research project

Thank you so much and good luck for the rest of the day. We are off to get some rest and a cooling drink…

38 Comments

  1. Good stuff ! Loved it.

    Posted by: Gregor on September 15th, 2006 at 10:25 pm

  2. Amazing. I can’t believe they all work so close to one another. Especially in a huge city like Tokyo.

    Posted by: Adrian on September 16th, 2006 at 1:18 am

  3. Style is nothing.

    Posted by: Riemann on September 16th, 2006 at 2:04 am

  4. Love the frenetic creative directions of these PingMag features. Any links to the curiously titled Ladies Bike magazine; who would’ve thought such a need for such a mag ?!?

    Posted by: Aidee on September 16th, 2006 at 10:03 am

  5. You can order the latest issue of any of these magazines from White Rabbit Xpress, a special order service for Japanese goods located in Tokyo: http://www.whiterabbitxpress.com

    Posted by: Max on September 16th, 2006 at 10:58 am

  6. Wao! very interesting article! you captured people whose job are capturing others.

    Posted by: tori on September 17th, 2006 at 1:14 am

  7. Really interesting! But it is interesting too where’s the roots of all this interest in Japanese street fashion. Did it begin with “Fruits” or what? I have no idea :)

    Posted by: Mindaugas on September 17th, 2006 at 4:28 am

  8. This is great. It will be very interesting of a website done this kind of thing but traveled to different cities all over the world. Maybe a lesser known city could come up with some very cool new fashion.

    Posted by: Tahir on September 18th, 2006 at 1:02 am

  9. heh, amazing. if only I had the tools coughdslr I’d do one of those someday.

    Posted by: aaron on September 18th, 2006 at 2:15 pm

  10. Ahh. Lots of hard done to take interviews of interviewers.

    Posted by: Paavani on September 18th, 2006 at 2:33 pm

  11. The photography is more than a tool, I’m convinced of ot. And the outdoor work (in the street) is not easy :) about this article: This is what I call FREEDOM! whow- !! freedo to interview, to take photos, to work!

    I’ve seen the fashion in Tokyo has a great and amazing variety of styles, and I’ve noticed there in Japan the hair styles are more variated than other countries - that’s what I’ve see on TV and magazines :)

    Posted by: Jorge Mtz Dv on September 18th, 2006 at 3:05 pm

  12. I’ve recently been in Sydney and now I want to go to Tokyo! it seems to be a crazy city!

    Posted by: Rebecca on September 18th, 2006 at 4:28 pm

  13. As a regular myself of the Harajuku crossing for some street shots, this article was very interesting…

    Posted by: Maddemoiselle on September 18th, 2006 at 10:16 pm

  14. Style is Everything

    Posted by: Sean on September 19th, 2006 at 2:00 am

  15. Rebecca: If you thought Sydney was a hot spot, you must see Melbourne for the street fashion styleeeees. Makes Sydney look like the ugly jealous half-sister…

    Posted by: El Quag on September 19th, 2006 at 8:40 am

  16. Really interesting interview!

    Posted by: _asais on September 19th, 2006 at 9:50 pm

  17. Street photography is real fun! I love to snap candid shots on the street. ;-) Amazing!

    Posted by: N I C O on September 22nd, 2006 at 11:57 am

  18. interesting insights!

    Posted by: Stefan on September 27th, 2006 at 6:35 pm

  19. This would be so interesting to do in London. Get over here quick!

    Posted by: Badger on September 28th, 2006 at 5:09 am

  20. very enjoyable read. good stuff.

    Posted by: scr on September 29th, 2006 at 3:56 am

  21. Really good story. I really enjoyed. If you could interview with their “Street model” would be great.

    Posted by: Alf on October 17th, 2006 at 9:31 pm

  22. [...] PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Interviewing Omotesando’s street fashion crews How to do street interviews in terms of taking pictures finding them and resources needed. (tags: article photos pictures camera design fashion interview japan news people photo photography street) by nibaq’s delicious | posted in Links Trackback URL | Comment RSS Feed Tag at del.icio.us | Incoming links [...]

    Posted by: Savior Machine » links for 2006-10-19 on October 19th, 2006 at 1:22 pm

  23. so are there ohter streetfashion “photoblogs” out there beside
    http://www.hel-looks.com/
    http://www.fashionsnap.com/
    http://www.style-arena.jp/

    Posted by: 0x on October 25th, 2006 at 2:01 am

  24. Ich habe dieser BLOG gelesen und ich finde ihn interessant.

    Bitte besuchen Sie uns auch-
    http://www.fashionbags.de

    Posted by: jameshkoler on November 9th, 2006 at 6:49 pm

  25. pxi is coming to Tokyo,soon these guys will be able to print better than minilab digital prints in less than 4 secs per print to share.

    Posted by: barrie harrop on December 29th, 2006 at 11:45 am

  26. [...] PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Interviewing Omotesando’s street fashion crews No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]

    Posted by: ponchorama!!! on December 30th, 2006 at 2:02 pm

  27. pxidigital plans to launch in Tokyo,scope for up to 10,000 pxi’s in Japan any time soon,camera/phone owners will love pxi for its “instant gratification”

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  30. http://babeskiskass.info x

    Posted by: Zmajrag on June 15th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

  31. Style is nothing.

    Posted by: shiyas on September 4th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

  32. Let’s go on a mushroom Hunt!

    A Fashion illustrated feature
    at Vice Fashion
    http://www.viceland.com/int/v14n8/htdocs/fashion_mush.php?country=uk

    Posted by: Maria on September 6th, 2007 at 11:47 pm

  33. You can see mexican street fashion in this site
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    Posted by: a on March 30th, 2008 at 7:52 am

  34. [...] has an interesting interview with some of the street fashion photography crews in Tokyo.These are the people that provide style [...]

    Posted by: renaissance chambara | Ged Carroll - Street life on June 20th, 2008 at 8:00 am

  35. Real interesting interview and insights!

    Posted by: denise boomkens on August 12th, 2008 at 5:23 pm

  36. Excellent. As an aspiring illustrator this article was really inspirational. Thank you Ping Mag. I love your site. :)

    Posted by: bursa evden eve nakliyat on March 31st, 2009 at 7:00 pm

  37. Me encanto la entrevista, felicidades.

    Posted by: Alfonso on April 29th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

  38. this article was so interesting to read^^ keep up the good work :

    Posted by: Anonymous on June 7th, 2009 at 11:05 am

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