FUKUI -- "Just imagine Carolina is beside you," photographer Masaru Uomi said as he looked through the viewfinder at a 24-year-old exchange student from Uzbekistan. The remark to get the student to visualize his girlfriend prompted him to break into a grin.
"Good smile," Uomi said as he took the photo.
Uomi, a 68-year-old from Sabae, Fukui Prefecture, runs a photo studio and has spent about 20 years taking portraits of foreign visitors to Ishikawa and Fukui prefectures. Thus far, he has photographed more than 200 foreign visitors who hail from 82 countries.
Shy, withdrawn, with few friends as a child, Uomi was in high school when one day he came across an instant camera at a photo shop in a town. For no particular reason, he bought it. His world broadened as he began to take walks outside to seek picturesque scenery.
Uomi came to admire Kishin Shinoyama, an artist who is known for photographing women beautifully. Influenced by Shinoyama's work, he decided to enroll in a photography school in Tokyo despite opposition from his parents.
He grew out his hair and tied it with a rubber band to give himself the look of an artist. However, he could not photograph passersby on the street as he was too afraid to speak to them. Eventually -- with "heart pounding," he recalled -- Uomi mustered the courage to speak to a beautiful woman with long black hair. She allowed him to photograph her, which made him so happy that he does not remember what happened next.
"I remember that I felt I could connect to various kinds of people as a photographer," he said.
Uomi found work as an assistant cameraman at an ad agency in Tokyo, but faced harsh realities. He earned a meager salary into his late 30s, doing anything he could to feed himself. He could not even get married.
He returned to the Hokuriku region on the recommendation of a former colleague and moved to Ishikawa Prefecture, earning a steady income taking photos of commercial products. He opened a small studio and was satisfied with his lifestyle.
One day, a free local newspaper launched a series featuring foreigners on the front page and asked Uomi to take the photos.
He communicated with his subjects through gestures due to the lack of a common language. Even so, his models responded to Uomi's requests with evocative facial expressions and gestures. He soon found himself captivated by conducting photo shoots of foreigners.
"They become sexy or go crazy sometimes," he said. "It's fun that I can relate to them as someone from the same planet."
He remembered the excitement he felt when he first started taking portraits.
The series featuring cover photos of foreigners was a hit and lasted two years, even though it was originally to be a one-year project. After the series concluded, Uomi decided to make it his lifework to photograph foreigners.
Uomi scoped out subjects at college festivals and other events that attracted many foreign visitors. In Ishikawa Prefecture, he took pictures of people from 57 countries. He moved back to his hometown of Sabae about eight years ago and has since photographed subjects from 25 countries in Fukui Prefecture.
His shoots are not limited to his Sabae studio as he also works at locations selected by his subjects. He lets them choose the scenery they like best from his portfolio of landscape photos. This approach helps Uomi draw out the emotions of his subjects, such as surprise and fascination.
The Uzbek student chose a waterfall located in the mountains of Echizen, Fukui Prefecture.
He said Uomi is popular among his friends as "an interesting Japanese" who introduces foreigners to genuine aspects of Japan that cannot be experienced through guided tours.
Uomi will soon have photographed 100 foreigners in Fukui Prefecture and plans to hold his first solo exhibition as a photographer.
He says he feels no pressure, adding: "I took photographs for my own personal fulfillment, but they also show subjects' lives as they really are. It'll be great if the audience feels something from my pictures."
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