Exposed: Japan: The Art of Manju won the Food category

When I first heard about the Exposed: Japantown photo contest, I was determined to win it. Which is an irrational goal, since no one can control the judge’s tastes, the competition’s skill level, or one’s own luck.

Still, Seattle’s Japantown is the spiritual center of my background and being, and its revival has been spearheaded by my longtime friend (and former NYC roomie), Binko Bisbee and her husband John, whose shop, KOBO at Higo has become the area’s center of culture and commerce. Plus the central goal of the contest, to expose and promote the area, spoke loudly to me. Marshaling the means to produce meaningful images of a place so important to me also would represent another milestone in my journey as a photographer, it still being in its early stages.
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