We are two people, a man and a woman called Yoshihiro Saeki and Yukari Manabe respectively, and have decided to call ourselves Toki. Our joint name comes from what the crested ibis is called in Japanese. We always follow a theme that we call ‘opening the image to understand the depths of what Japanese people are like’. We chose the name Toki because we thought it sounded very nice and pleasant. Another reason we chose it is that it is very easy to read for foreigners as it is written in Katakana.

We just started taking pictures that were usually seen as if they were taken out of context. Also, one of us began as a fashion photographer’s assistant, and the other as a photographer. We had the opportunity to work together and we realised we could come up with more interesting, detailed ideas if we merged our worldviews. Ever since we have been working as a duo. This is actually our third year doing so, and since 2017, we’ve been calling ourselves Toki.

Those photos form part of a series called Fantasy, which is why they look like that. We wanted to show in the series that, nowadays, it’s really easy to get answers if you search them on Google, which is very efficient. However, it is robbing us from fantasising or imagining their meaning.

We wanted to make visible something that we cannot see. By using the Kira effect, we can visualise the light – which is normally invisible – as well as its purity and sacredness. Also, it emphasises a sense of cleanliness.

We don’t really go much to Harajuku in Tokyo, so we wouldn’t call ourselves experts in that culture. Our reason for using this effect is to represent the fantasy element. However, instead of using it for a kawaii effect, we want to complement the clean aspect of it. The search for cleanliness is to trigger its purity, goodness and mystery. Also, there is a great influence of Zen in Japan, as we are taught throughout school that cleaning is a very important task. As Japanese people, we consider that we have sort of a consciousness to seek it.

We first met a very charming person called Bunta Shimizu. We began photographing him and then we ended up working with him. In the meantime, he became Kom_I’s stylist. She saw the photos we took for a Japanese fashion magazine called Soen, and so she let us take pictures of her and Bunta. That was the beginning of the photo series that can be seen in Wednesday Campanella’s CD covers. We love working with her. We really don’t have to think much when we are around her; we connect with each other on another level, it’s like our subconsciouses are working together. Also, the experience of the two shootings opened so many doors for us, so we are very grateful for that.

Seiran Tsuno (the designer) contacted us through Instagram. We think that, perhaps, she likes to represent that that we cannot see. That’s what probably resonated with her most about our work, as we are trying to make the unknown visible. When we saw her work, immediately that side resonated with us, which is why we decided to work with her. We have a very warm memory of that shoot, as we found that our views and feelings towards the work were very similar to Ms Tsuno’s and also the stylist’s. Also, because we are a woman and man that form this collaborative effort, we think that our masculine and feminine ways of thinking complement each other, and we end up having quite a neutral viewpoint.

Of course, we are influenced by many Japanese photography books, and our country’s history and mythology, as well as everyone we’ve worked with so far with, like Kom_i, Bunta and Ms Tsuno. We find it interesting to find the common style of the era from our contemporaries, so these artists are a great source of influence on us.

We are shooting for Japanese magazines, working on our website and continuing to photograph even more. In the future, we’d like to open ourselves more by working together with people from different industries, and we’re looking forward to moving on to the next era of our work.