Double page portrait of the New York Startup White Ops in T-Systems client mag ‘Best Practice’ issue 01/2017 published by Hoffmann & Campe Hamburg.
I shot the three founders last summer in front of Madison Square Garden on 7th Avenue, during the production of the magazine ‘THE HUNDERT – Startups of New York’.
A few years back, when I was traveling during the wintertime, I rented out my Berlin apartment to Alison, a DJ from New York. Last summer, before I flew to Japan, she connected me with Yasu, an old friend of hers, who lived in Tokyo.
He and Alison met, when Yasu was studying music business in New York back in 2000 , while working as an intern at a record label called ‚Turntable Lab’.
On his return to Tokyo after finishing his studies in 2004, he opened up his own record label and store called ‚Moonwalk Records‘ as well as a Tokyo branch of ‚Turntable Lab‘. But the music business in Japan was not going as well as expected, so Yasu switched to advertising. He worked for clients like Audi, doing brand promotions including parties and popup stores, where he could combine his love for music with the job.
A friend of Yasu started an animation company and asked him to join as a producer. For animation you need a story, graphic design and music. Working as a producer, has enabled Yasu to integrate his many previous life experiences.
Again at work for the Munich creative agency LAUT VON LEISE… I documented the 2016 ‘ABSOLUT VODKA – Absolut Nights’ campaign: A light installation by the Belgium artist Fred Eerdekens at Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
For two months, we photographed the founders of New York’s 100 top startups in various locations all around the city. We worked on the just released issue of THE HUNDERT Vol 09 – Startups of New York. Companies in this issue are Casper, Classpass, Jukely, Now This News, MIC, Code Academy and many more…
For the startup magazine ‘Berlin Valley’ we visited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in his New York office.
The interview was released in issue October 2016.
