Masako Rocks!

Masako listening to some music, as usual. 

These pictures offer a portrait of my friend Masako.  Masako is a first year student at Kansai Gaidai who is originally from Kagawa.  She is currently studying English with hopes of studying abroad in America or Canada in the near future.  Her biggest interest is undoubtedly music, which is actually how I met her. I heard her playing music and we compared our iTunes libraries. She is always listening to music whether it’s through her headphones or exchanging favorite songs and CD’s with international students. She chose these two pictures for her portrait because she felt that they embodied her love of music and captured her attitude.  She likes many types of music, but holds rock and roll in much higher esteem than the rest.  Her favorite bands include groups such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Sum 41, Blink 182, and above all Avril Lavigne. She often attends concerts in Osaka and even travels several hours away to other cities to see her favorite bands when they come to Japan. Masako insists that the best concert she has ever been to was when she saw an Avril Lavigne concert a few years ago, and cannot wait to see her again when she comes to Osaka this February.  As noticeable in the pictures, her clothing and sense of style certainly emulate Avril Lavigne and she indubitably has a similar type of rock attitude.  In these pictures I aimed to capture this style and aura to truly reflect Masako’s personality.  We chose the first picture because we thought it captured her love of music with the use of the headphones and her facial expression really shows her kind side.  Masako thought the second one was even better noting that it captured her Rock inspired attitude as she threw up the rock and roll symbol on her hand while blasting songs by Sum 41.  In doing this portrait with Masako I learned so much about music and the Rock scene in Osaka, as Masako’s knowledge in this area seems unparalleled. 

Masako Rocking out to Fat Lip by Sum 41.