The majority of press work involves working with print media. Our involvement spans a wide range, from lending garments for editorial stories to creating tie-up features, placing advertisements, and even shooting stories in-house and submitting them as is.

The pages created through the collaboration of various actors can sometimes produce impressive results, but clashes are also constant due to differences in sensibilities between photographers, stylists, editors, and brand press. Since fashion is a world of ideals and sensations, there are no logical explanations. When conflicts arise, they usually end in a stalemate.

A photo is often cropped because it doesn't "fit" the publication, cut because it doesn't "fit" the brand's image, or re-shot due to various financial "balances." The "quality" of the photo is not a priority here. Even shots that I personally thought were "great" are cut out.

After seeing this repeatedly, I began to feel a particular sense of "a struggle of images," "conflict," and "a rough, lingering worldview after a struggle" with each page of fashion print media. American Vogue, which sublimated this "conflict" into a brand image, is comical and admirable, but when I see it in other media, it feels half-baked and somewhat disappointing.

In contrast, some independent media seem to select "the best images" and "information" under strong direction. These media often make my heart race with each page.

And strangely enough, even for us in the press, many of the pages are high quality, clean, and good, in the sense that they "don't stray too far from the brand image." It seems contradictory that the media has strong direction yet the brand image doesn't collapse, but ultimately, my impression is that they create beautiful pages without pandering to the brand.

Recently, I've been interested in "Many of Them" among overseas magazines, and in Japan, "Too Much Magazine" seems to be creating interesting pages.

In either case, the current situation is that, due to various factors, a huge number of great shots have been lost. You could say that this is just the nature of media, but...

Ebizo from our editorial team and I are currently exploring the possibility of creating a new print media, and it might be interesting to create visuals with the theme "In Search of Lost Shots."

In search of great shots that have been buried or discarded...