Welcome - and thanks for stopping by this site. In a few lines here, I will attempt to introduce myself and my work. Please bear with me as I write in the first person; I think such will allow me to avoid a ponderous tone and keep things relatively short and to the point.
I was born and raised in coastal Southern California, growing up quite close to the sea and with an early affinity for the water. My father was a cinematographer, which resulted in my showing an interest in working with a camera from a young age. By my mid-teens, I was already fairly accomplished in most aspects of black-and-white photography. However, from the time I entered college in the mid-1960s, I drifted away from things photographic. This hiatus lasted until the late 1970s, when I began to revive the skills and senses in earnest.
In late 1979, I relocated to Japan, at first working in overseas film and video coordination for Japanese production firms. However, my photographic skills were soon put to use and after a short time, I had essentially hung out my shingle as a freelance magazine photojournalist. My forte then began to evolve; my work centered on multi-page articles with the photos done 'live' and on location. Studio photography held no interest for me. One common denominator of my various efforts tended to be that of difficulty; I have enjoyed working with technical or situational challenges. On earlier assignments I was often paired with a writer, but by the late 1980s I was most often working alone and producing both the text and photos for articles across a spectrum of genres.
While the great majority of my work has been for Japanese publishers, doing that has afforded me the opportunity to work in various places around the globe. At the risk of sounding trite, I have to admit that in coming to Japan I had the chance to discover the world.
In recent years, I have been teaching at the university level and working as well in news and documentary production with a Japanese television network. Most of my recent photographic efforts have been in black and white, with the goal of using that 'traditional' photographic medium in some new and different visual explorations.
The galleries on this site present a compendium of various genres; the images included here range across almost the entirety of my career. I hope you will find them interesting and enjoyable. All of the photographs were made in the 35mm format using Nikon camera bodies and lenses; this combination has allowed me wide freedom and a flexibility that would be more difficult - if not downright impossible - with other formats and equipment.
For quite a long time I held to a conceit that the large multi-page feature articles I had produced were in essence my own special 'gallery shows.' However, recently I have taken to heart the suggestions from friends and associates that I should be more active in showing my work and am now beginning to explore doing so. I plan to use this site to post notices of gallery shows and other such events, so if you have an interest, please check the 'News and Events' heading here from time to time.
Comments and inquiries are welcome; please feel free to send an e-mail. Please understand that things can get very busy at times, so a reply may not be immediate. Prints can be made to order on request.
Thanks, and once again, welcome.
Michael E. J. Stanley