□ Artist Statement
Los Angeles-based photographer/artist TAK S. ITOMI was raised in Japan. Tak moved to Los Angeles in 1999, and studied photography and cinematography at California State University, Northridge.
In 2004 while at university, in addition to winning photography awards from Asahi Newspaper and Konica Minolta, he won first prize in the SOGO Photo Contest, one of Japan’s largest photo contests. The prized photograph was titled “Freeway,” a daytime desert landscape shot between California and Nevada. The piece was described as “simple, strong, and happy.” This continues to be the common theme: Tak’s art is simple, strong, happy.
After graduating university, he moved back to Tokyo and started his career as a professional photographer. Early in his career, he had solo exhibitions in Japan named “Soul America.” He showed energetic American landscapes with contrast, light, and color. The show was successful and garnered invitations from institutions including University of Southern Queensland, Australia. For five years from 2007, he served as chef art director of LEAF, Linking East Asian Future, a student forum between China, Korea, and Japan.
In 2008, Tak moved back to Los Angeles and started his new career as a photographer for Discover Los Angeles and Modernica Inc. He also served as the vice president of LELA, Lantern of the East, Los Angeles, an organization for LA-based international artists. He has featured in juried national and international shows, such as Five Elements/ One World (2011) at the Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Art Park, Hollywood, and the International Art Expo (2014) in Zaragoza, Spain. The experiences with—and feedback from—other international artists has given rise to even simpler, stronger, happier art.
In 2013, he joined the Rebun Island Project as a key coordinator and official photographer. This is an educational project to reinvigorate a small island of Japan.