Masataka Nakano’s ‘My Lost America’ photography book ran past my eyes at one of my favourite photography bookstores in Berlin. It’s a very nostalgic look at the lost years of America in the 80s, the centrepiece of which is a startlingly eerie picture of the twin towers hovering over New York before they were attacked in 2001. It seems that in the 80s people were happier, things were hotter, and people were far more subdued. But then again, maybe it was because of the huge cocaine boom? Who would have thought that a Japanese photographer by the name of Masataka Nakano would have undertaken such a project: ‘The colour photographs that fill every page of this book are then a slice of America that has slowly disappeared, yet draw on iconic and timeless images of people captured on the street, empty spaces, billboards and signage, streetscapes, parks and Cadillac’s and Chevrolets’. Simply dazzling!

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Photographer Masaru Goto has an interesting series of portraits up at Global Compassion that show every day Burakumin, an ethnically Japanese group of people descended from the untouchables of the feudal Japanese caste system. Even today, the Burakumin face discrimination – they live in segregated districts that are often neglected by city governments, and the general public still negatively stereotypes them as poor and backwards.

If I was a fashion photographer instead of an illustrator, I would probably be Maki Kawakita, or at least be like her. And it’s not because we are both Japanese. I definitely relate to the strong sense of design, composition, angles and color she uses, and most of all, I like how she slips in a funny sense of humor into her fashion photography. I saw some of her work in a show called Click Chic last year, and it was amazing.