hikaru was born and raised in california, but now lives in tokyo. his major in college was originally computer science, but he soon realized that he'd rather create art, specifically photography (his first photo class was in high school).

'hikaru' is a pseudonym that he has been using for various reasons. if you'd like to know more, please ask.
(clever people may be able to find his real name somewhere on this site).

he is inspired by many things in life: books. friends. music. flowers. trash. strangers. animals. patterns. discoveries. booze. hikaru likes noticing something that he has never noticed before, even though he's seen it hundreds of times. he loves all kinds of art and intellectual stimulation. he likes discussing human psychology and debating philosophy. he likes to read about science and dream about the future. he doesn't use capital letters, for utilitarian and esthetic reasons.

he is influenced by a few other photographers: ninagawa mika, moriyama daido, david lachapelle, araki nobuyoshi, and other professional artists, as well as his college photo teachers suda house and donna cosentino. he is also close with fellow san diego-based photographic artists todd cook and alex stern.

hikaru came to japan because it was his dream. he has always had an interest in japan, but in college it turned into something of an obsession. he visited there once for a 3 week long vacation, and knew it was the place for him. for the next few years, he was constantly striving toward moving to japan. and now he's there! dreams really do come true! he's not finished, though. he's still got a few more dreams that he's working on.

hikaru has some of his personal photos on picasaweb, google's photo-sharing service. some of them are just snapshots of parties, or pictures of his daughter. others are attempts to be artsy, sometimes failing. he shot most, but not all of them. it's sort of a photo diary of his life.

if you have any interest in hikaru's work, or in him personally, he loves meeting new people! please drop him a line any time.

thanks to everyone for visiting this site.

--hikaru