Harajuku in Los Angeles - Garage Studio Portraits (2022-ongoing)

By happenstance, I first learned about local Harajuku when J-Fashion dressers enjoyed an international fashion walk on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles in 2015. Their imaginative streetwear enamored me, creatively merging and rifting styles while staying true to Japanese fashion subcultures and expressing kawaii (the quality of being cute). 

Harajuku in Los Angeles is a multi-series that embraces photographic portraiture. It celebrates Harajuku fashion-inspired individuals in Los Angeles. The Garage Studio is the second of three portrait-based projects.  

For Garage Studio, J-fashion dressers' photographs are taken in a 'stage portrait studio' – essentially a car garage adjacent to the monthly meetups hosted by Harajuku Day, a welcoming and diverse collective of Harajuku enthusiasts now a nonprofit. These images are a living narrative of SoCal's Harajuku community and their streetwear — chronicling alternative colorful niche styles, e.g., decora, fairy-kei, Lolita, cult-party-kei, and more.

Series Background: For the multi-series, I have photographed 70-plus Los Angeles' Harajuku community members and interviewed numerous individuals. In the spirit of FRUiTS Magazine, the legendary Japanese street style digest associated with the fashion youth in Tokyo's Harajuku district, the Harajuku in Los Angeles will have several iterations, including print editions, a broadsheet, and a zine called CiTrUs Magazine. The CiTrUs zines include images and quotes from community members.

Thank you to the Los Angeles’ Harajuku community and Harajuku Day for their support.