7 years in the making. It’s been a long road, but my first photobook is finally happening.
I moved to Japan about 7 years ago in search of change. A big change. Packed up my stuff, sold my small company (and everything else I could) and took off with a (very half baked) plan to live in Japan. I arrived on a working holiday visa that allowed me to stay for 6 months and not enough money to even last that long.
During that first 6 months I had planned to land a UX design job and have a rad time enjoying Japan 😎. That turned out to be a fairly optimistic (read: terrible) plan. It was probably the most stressful 6 months of my life looking back.
I enjoyed the first few months just cruising around, enjoying the country, casually applying for some jobs here and there and not too much worry. Then the realisation hit that money was going to run out and I would be asking my parents for a plane ticket back home very soon. I think it was about this point in the journey I got shingles (and influenza IIRC 👍) and was in excruciating pain, caused from the stress overload of needing to find a job ASAP.
I started considering other work options (ones that didn’t really interest me) so I could stay in the country, but having over 10 years' experience in UX design, I was pretty sure I wanted to continue down that career path. I’m glad I held out.
I landed a gig at an awesome fintech start-up called Kyash (there is a whole great story behind the job interview that I will tell another day), on a mission to change the way people make P2P payments. I was one of the first employees and has now grown into a thriving company. I am no longer there but I thank them for the wonderful introduction to Japan and the opportunities it provided me.
Once I got that job, I was so happy, I treated myself to a Fujifilm x100t camera after my first paycheck. Compact, light, and takes an awesome shot, it rekindled my love for photography, and introduced me to the neon playground that is Tokyo.
The next 7 years were a total whirlwind of experiences, ups, downs, lefts, and rights, like nothing I could have imagined.
From massive nights in underground clubs in Shibuya, travelling to remote areas to camp in the forest, multiple Fuji Rocks and Labyrinths, hiking up beautiful mountains and taking boats out to sea to visit abandoned coal mines miles from anything. It’s been totally crazy.
Which brings me to the title of the post. 7 years later, I am married to a beautiful woman (who took me on many of the adventures) and have the most amazing kid (although she’s in a biting phase at the moment 😅). I have also amassed an archive of thousands of photos taken over the years that I have curated into a book. It’s been a work in progress for a very long time and I am super excited to finally share it with the world.
Introducing AGK42 Photobook 01
The first edition is a special matte finish edition that comes with a signed and stamped certificate and is available in bundles with a bunch of extra cool things. If you are interested in one, hit AGK42.com, but don’t wait too long, there is only a handful of copies left as I am writing this.
I have also released digital certificate (NFT) options for people to purchase the books with crypto (yeah, yeah, I know some folks are not a fan of NFTs but it’s actually a great use of the tech to prove ownership and environmentally friendly now 💪) on OpenSea. Basically, folks can grab one from AGK42 Photobook 001 — Collection | OpenSea and show me the cert and I can send them a copy.
The book itself is 182 pages (at the moment, I am sending it to print soon but I might sneak some pages in 😬) with 128 photos taken around Japan and the world.
It’s broken into 4 sections. The city, Elsewhere, Isolation and Surreal. It covers a lot of the different styles I have explored over the years (of course with a main focus on night photography 😉).
It’s been an absolute labour of love and I am super proud of what I have created. I have learnt so much about every aspect of putting something like this together, from concept creation, art direction, print mechanics, marketing, design and project management. It’s been amazing, and although I probably won’t be making another one anytime soon (💀), having a full-time job at the same time is…. rough… but I have loved every moment of it.
Now I just have to actually print and ship this thing! I still have a lot to do, and I will post a full write up on the technical experience of creating the book in another post in the future and what I learn if you are interested in creating your own.
But for now, thank you to everyone who helped me along the way and all the amazing people who believe in my art enough to buy a whole book of it. It means the absolute world to me.
If you are interested in grabbing a copy, there is still a few limited first editions available on AGK42.com until they are sold out.
Thank you for reading
Alex
