On August 22, 28, and 29, we held a photo session for important “moments” by Herbie Yamaguchi. The goal was to “record the moments”, which is part of the essence of photography.
This photo session became a reality only through the cooperation of Rose Hotel Yokohama, Yokohama Shashinkan, and the cameraman/promoter himself, Herbie Yamaguchi. Previously in this column I have described Yamaguchi’s unique approach of “wishing the subject of his photo happiness after each shot”.
This session was for those who could not record their “moments” due to complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked participants to write to us sharing the reason they wanted Yamaguchi to photograph them.
We planned to stop taking applications as soon as the number of applicants reached our preset limit. As might have been predicted, we reached that number almost immediately. Even after closing the site to applications, we still received numerous emails. I contacted Yamaguchi to at least share those people’s thoughts and feelings. After reading the emails, he said to me, “Couldn’t I do the photo session with all the people who emailed in addition to those on the list?”
This is who Herbie Yamaguchi is. The main purpose of the event wasn’t to turn a profit, so for the budget, the cost of labor cost was disregarded. Of course, as the number of participants increases, so does our workload. Yamaguchi was aware of this, but still, he was willing to sacrifice his time. What a truly great person! Without hesitation, we all concurred and eventually ended up allowing nearly double the original limited number of people to participate.
I’d love to relate all the thoughts and feelings the applicants shared with us, but that’s impossible. However, one thing I can mention here is, Yamaguchi took every single interaction earnestly, and devoted himself to capturing each person’s “moment” in every shot. Knowing that, you can easily imagine all the participants’ emotions.
At this event we were able to see why Herbie Yamaguchi is considered “the best in the business if you convey happiness”. No other photo session has left a deeper impression on me.