Candies, © KYOKO HAMADA — *Candies*, © KYOKO HAMADA

There are different kinds of feeling in your whole still life series, some of them looks like very dramatic and others look very daily life. For your own opinion, which feeling you do you prefer and why?

I like when I find a certain kind of drama in everyday life, or in ordinary objects that I hadn't thought of before. A sense of discovery is always exciting even if it’s a quiet one. Simple elements and materials that are chosen carefully can sometimes create a photograph that has a lasting intrigue.

Guimauve, © KYOKO HAMADA — *Guimauve*, © KYOKO HAMADA

I really love the way you deal with light, especially the rabbit one and sugar cube one. Let me feel peaceful and warm. Wonder know whether you set those kind of lights of use nature light.

Thank you. Yes, natural light is beautiful. I love it too. However, when I’m shooting at home, my Brooklyn apartment sadly doesn’t have any good light, so out of necessity, I’ve learned to recreate the light I want artificially. Even in the fortunate circumstance where there is this beautiful natural light available, I often end up adding a faint flash or reflector to create the look I want. Often, the light we see with our naked eye is not how it ends up looking on film, a digital viewfinder, or a laptop. Both photographs—the rabbit and sugar cubes—were photographed using natural light as the main source, but I did use a tiny bit of artificial lighting to give the rabbit a brighter look, and to keep the sugar cube from being totally backlit.

I wonder know how do you decide your main still life subjects in your photos.

I think daily observation is still my main inspiration when choosing the subject matter for my still life. Sometimes I take a a kind of visual note or sketch using my camera phone to remind myself of something I saw or felt, in the hope that maybe there’s a clue for future work. But, I often I forget those ideas...shame. Other times I might draw a still life idea and scribble some notes after reading a certain passage in a book or or seeing a film. Again though, I usually go back to those drawings and roll my eyes, wondering what was I thinking. Once in a while though, the little scribble remains relevant, so I create something out of it. Right now I’m thinking about my own daily life and what these seemingly boring objects mean to me. I’m also trying to be okay with not completely understanding what these still life mean. If what I’m making sustains my curiosity, then that is a good enough reason to continue creating.

Sugar Cube, © KYOKO HAMADA — *Sugar Cube*, © KYOKO HAMADA

Describe your creative process in one word.

Intuition followed by action or vise versa.

If you could teach a one-hour class on anything, what would it be?

My class would be called, Appreciation of Objects. Students would bring one item from their home and we would discuss what that object would be saying if it had a brain and a mouth. The class will promote the students sense discovery in what they see in their everyday busy lives. Hopefully, we would all learn to appreciate what we have, and be more choosy in what we bring into our lives. We will have a cake after the class.