Chris Willson
Profile
Bio
Born in Manchester, England. Chris studied ecology at the Universities of Lancaster and Calgary. After traveling around Europe and Australasia he worked as a guide in the Peruvian Amazon. In 1999, he moved to Japan for what he thought would be a brief stint teaching English. His initial interest in the country changed to a deep fascination which inspired his travels around Japan. More than a decade later, he now lives on the island of Okinawa, where he works as a writer, photographer and lecturer.
He hopes that his articles and images will inspire others to visit Japan, or bring back fond memories to those who have made their own journeys through the land of the rising sun.
Equipment
Chris shoots with the medium format Pentax 67II system. It results in a heavy travel bag, but the huge transparencies are outstanding. He uses Fuji Provia and Velvia films for their fantastic color and exceptionally fine grain.
Since June 2010, he also uses the Pentax 645D medium format digital system. This gives him the resolution and image quality of medium format with the faster workflow of digital.
Published Work
His writing and photographs have been used for newspapers, magazines, advertising, documentaries, and academic textbooks. See tear sheets for some examples of his recent publications.
Read an interview with Chris Willson about capturing images of Japan at the Pentax ok1000 blog.