My interview & words for RED Camera
With an instinctive understanding of racing and a skillset honed as a photojournalist, Ryoma Kashiwagi has mastered the art of motorsport photography.
The Japanese artist specializes in photography of Formula 1 and the WEC: World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Heures du Mans, documenting the drivers, their mechanics and the machines with a signature style uniquely captured with RED cameras.
He is currently the official photographer for the French Alpine Endurance Team treating his work as an artistic project rather than a conventional press and public relations shoot.
“When I told people about my plans to shoot still photos of racing cars with RED, many were skeptical, but I always believed in the very cinematic idea of capturing photographic images with the DSMC,” he says.
“When KOMODO was announced in 2019, my certainty was replaced with confidence. I am one of very few photographers who know that a RED Digital Cinema camera can produce high quality photographs even in one single frame.”
Ryoma’s passion for motor racing began as a child in the 1980s at a time when many racers and rally drivers were still losing their lives on the track.
“I was interested in the machines themselves, but I was most fascinated by the way these racers lived,” says Ryoma. “The way they try to achieve victory and glory while risking losing everything.”
Motorsport competition today is far safer than it was, but the safety risks have not been eliminated. It is why Ryoma has made it his life’s work to document the humanity of those who choose this path.
“They could leave this world a minute after I photograph them in the pit garage,” Ryoma says. “Behind their helmets, they are not necessarily thinking about death but I sometimes feel that there is a split second of hesitancy in their eyes. By documenting them in a very cinematic way and by releasing the shutter at the right time, I try to capture this fleeting human moment.”
Ryoma bought a KOMODO 6K in October 2021. The following week he took it to an endurance race in Bahrain. “The results and the operation of the camera at that time were even better than I expected,” he says. “Since then, I’ve shot all races with RED KOMODO and used KOMODO X for the first-time last year at the F1 Japanese GP.”
Using the REC function for each individual shot, Ryoma creates high-quality work from RED RAW files. “I produce still images by processing the R3D files,” he explains. “My images have a high percentage of black on the frame, and I also emphasize the gradation of that black. In this regard KOMODO-X is without comparison. It enables me to push the blacks to the extent that I am looking for in the image. Being able to shoot 15 stops of exposure, especially in shadows, is another excellent attribute and gives the shot beautiful blacks in any situation.”
He considers KOMODO exceptionally durable and reliable during extreme temperatures of racing. Even when the cameras become too hot to hold, the data remains perfectly intact, he says.
“People told me that hand-held control of a cinema camera is impractical, but the KOMODO's body size showed that this is possible,” he adds.
“I shoot RED because I love RED. It’s that simple. For me, RED is supreme. I am a passionate user and have become enamored with the camera’s great performance. The global shutter feature of KOMODO is the biggest factor in my success.”
He pairs RED with Leica lenses which he has used throughout his career, most recently favouring the APO-Summicron-M F2.0/50mm. This minimalist approach to equipment comes from his experience as a photojournalist in the Middle East. He was based in Jerusalem as a correspondent for Newsweek and National Geographic magazines.
“I mainly used a 28mm lens there. This technique was the opposite of aiming at a subject with a telephoto lens at the trackside in the circuit. I learned how to find the best lighting in the field, the best distance from the subject, how to focus visually, and how to avoid danger. I took this knowledge and my growing shooting skills and returned to Europe to pursue motor racing.”
Before going to Jerusalem Ryoma was a student of the late photographer Yoshikuni Okumura who advised him against shooting motor racing.
“He said shooting a racing machine on a track is like shooting a bird in a birdcage, with no photographic freedom at all. After returning from photographing conflicts in the Middle East I found that the "birdcage problem" was no longer a worry because I had developed my own shooting style that was different from other photographers. I had found a way of expressing the racer’s lives I wanted to show.”
Ryoma prints his work on carbon, aluminum, titanium or acrylic which gives a unique aesthetic to the final image. This idea was inspired by his grandfather, who worked as a machinist and by his father who designed and engineered tools in a workshop at the family home.
“I remember playing in the factory of my own house as a child. I also studied metals in high school and later, automotive engineering. For me, it is natural to express myself on the materials used in racing machines than to print photographs on paper. I am creating a collection of machine-like works and to make the most of these, I am creating an art piece with a machine-look.
Ryoma is planning to make a short film which he will direct and serve as cinematographer. “KOMODO-X will be the main camera used for this shoot,” he says. “Creatively, it will be extremely ambitious. I'm hooked on this project right now!
“I want to find the bridge between photography and moving images within the context of art. What kind of picture is a photographic image in the context of a motion picture? That is the realm I want to explore.”
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