ryuichisakamoto — Lujon Rael Portfolio - Blog

Welcome back to the Lujon Rael Portfolio blog for this month, and its been quite a busy month with another two shoots in the studio under my belt. But more of that in a bit. This month also sees my father turn twenty one again (?), or so he likes to tell us. We know he is really about a hundred and three, but we won’t let him in on the fact that we know. Joking aside, its wishing you a happy birthday and glad you like your 'Pooping Puppies' Jigsaw (it is a thousand piece jigsaw featuring one hundred and one dogs of all breeds having a shit ! I kid you not See Here).I knew that would be just up his street and preferably down wind so he cant smell the doggy does. Happy birthday Dad, love you.

On a sadder note, I caught the BBC News 24 coverage of the passing of one of my favourite musicians and influencers. The celebrated Japanese pianist and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. He had been battling cancer for sometime, but it finally claimed his life. His music has been an inspiration to me for decades, ever since I purchased a copy of the Yellow Magic Orchestra first vinyl LP in Northamptons ‘Our Price’ record store.. To this day his music often appears in my slideshows, right here on this blog. Ryuichi Sakamoto acted in as well as scored the music to,films including 'Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence' and 'The Last Emperor.' He also created beautiful musical scores for many other films, 'Wuthering Heights,' 'The Sheltering Sky' and more recently 'The Revenant,’ to name but a few. I was privileged to see him on tour once at the Hammersmith Odeon (Eventim Apollo its now called I think?) in London, which was a thrill and the art work and front covers of his records I have tried to emulate in my photography. Here below are two such images, pastiches on 'The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto' and 'Sweet Revenge' front covers. I hope I did them justice?

So its thank you and a sweet sayonara to Mr Sakamoto, you left us with the beautiful sound track of your life.

So yes we managed to fill two commitments in this month with shoots down at The Boardroom Studio. Firstly with Boxer and athlete Nicolie Campbell then a second shoot with two Asian models, Supple Suki and Yoo Yoo. Both were great shoots and went well, but I owe a huge thanks to those who assist me. To Shadrine at Kavour Beauty, my makeup artist who pulled out all the stops for these two sessions. She was brilliant, just look at her work on ll three models starting with Nicole Campbells tribal look. Spot on. Thank you also to Phil Lynam at the Boardroom Studio for his invaluable input and lighting suggestions on the day. And a big thank you also to my wife Amy for being there to assist me and make all the food.