KOMAZAWA KINGPIN BY STEVE GAUDIN
“I have many pasts. Four criminal records, three years in a wheelchair, and two near-death experiences. Now, I am an actor. The crew that worked on this photo series is a precious treasure I found in one of these many pasts. Life is made with encounters and farewells. People, things, events, sceneries. Everything is an encounter, a goodbye. If I had never met Steve, these images wouldn’t have existed. “
Model and Actor Yamamoto Ikken on his feelings during the shoot for Steve Gaudin’s “Komazawa Kingpin” series.
Born in 1987 near Paris, France, Steve Gaudin has been influenced by the world of art from a very young age, both of his parents working in the industry. His father’s work had a particularly great impact on Steve, as he was the one that, through his job in publishing, introduced Steve to the Japanese culture which he became heavily invested in.
A few years later, Steve got introduced to Akira and Otomo Katsuhiro’s Neo Tokyo universe which only further enhanced his interest in all things Japan.
Influenced by his newly found passion for mangas, Steve wanted to become an Illustrator yet ultimately switched his focus onto photography, a field in which he has been working for the last decade.
“Son, you gotta go check it out”. These were the words of Steves father after coming back from a business trip he had in Japan. A year later, Steve joined him and the photographer has been commuting between Paris and Tokyo ever since.
During his time at Uni, Steve majored in Japanese whilst also working on his newly found passion for photography, moving to Tokyo as a Masters exchange student in 2010. Inspired by legendary photographers like Sebastiao Salgado, Robert Doisneau and Willy Ronis, Steve started to document his daily life, what he did and what he saw, resulting in some of his first photo series.
Introduced by a friend from University, Steve tapped into commercial photography, learning about lighting, cameras and the overall industry.
After working as a photo assistant at Gaien Studio for 2 years, Steve followed his favourite fashion photographer at the time, Takay, to New York and assistant him for the next years.
“Move away, grow, come back” was his plan at the time.
Steve ultimately moved back to Japan in 2017 working with brands and magazines for fashion, portrait and advertising projects.
Besides his commercial projects, Steve always worked on personal photo series, collaborating and shooting with other artists and creatives.
During the course of last year, Steve worked together with his good friend “Yama”, Yamamoto Ikken, on a collection of images titled: “ Komazawa Kingpin”.
The original idea for the series came from Yama, the Komazawa Olympic Park being the birthplace of his OG streetball team, the Komazawa Rockers, a place full of meaning and memories.
