PLACES – A Photography Artbook of Japan’s Beauty (MAKE/100)

Independent photography projects live and die by trust. When you support a photographer on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, you’re not only backing a creative idea—you’re supporting the experience, dedication, and artistic vision behind it.

My newest project, PLACES – A Photography Artbook of Japan’s Beauty (MAKE/100), is the result of years of traveling, photographing, and exploring the visual identity of Japan. The book focuses on the atmosphere, landscapes, and cultural locations that make Japan such a fascinating destination for photographers and travelers alike.

A Limited MAKE/100 Photography Artbook

This project is part of Kickstarter’s MAKE/100 initiative, which celebrates limited creative productions with a maximum of 100 editions. Each copy of PLACES will therefore be part of a small, exclusive print run, making the book both a photography collection and a collectible art object.

The concept behind the book is simple: capture the beauty of Japan through carefully composed photography—from iconic landmarks to quiet moments that reveal the country’s unique atmosphere.

Instead of focusing purely on famous tourist spots, the project aims to present Japan through the eye of a photographer who values composition, light, and storytelling.

Experience from Previous Photography Artbook Projects

While I may still be considered an independent or emerging photography artist, this project is not my first experience with publishing photo books on Kickstarter.

I already had previous successful campaigns which helped establish the workflow and reliability behind my projects, here are two examples:

Masked – Cosplay Portrait Artbook
A MAKE/100 project focusing on artistic cosplay portrait photography, combining costume design, lighting, and character expression.

Japan in Black and White
A photography book exploring Japan through monochrome imagery, highlighting architecture, streets, and landscapes through classic black-and-white photography adding written stories to each and every picture therefore sharing the creation of those pictures

These projects allowed me to gain valuable experience in artbook production, printing logistics, campaign management, and delivering rewards to supporters worldwide.

Why Support an Independent Photography Artist?

For independent creators, crowdfunding isn’t just a funding method—it’s a way to build a community around creative work.

Supporting projects like PLACES helps photographers:

publish carefully curated photography collections
produce high-quality printed artbooks
continue documenting unique locations and cultures
maintain creative independence

In return, supporters receive exclusive, limited-edition photography books that will never be printed in large commercial runs.

Capturing the Beauty of Japan

Japan offers an incredible range of photographic inspiration—from historic temples and modern cityscapes to seasonal landscapes shaped by cherry blossoms and autumn foliage.

Through this project, I want to share the visual diversity and atmosphere of Japan in a curated format that invites readers to explore each image slowly, away from the fast pace of social media.

Photography books remain one of the best ways to experience visual storytelling, and PLACES aims to deliver exactly that.

Support the Kickstarter Campaign

If you enjoy photography, travel imagery, or limited artbook editions, you can support the project here:

PLACES on KICKSTARTER

Every supporter helps turn this photography project into a tangible book and supports independent artistic work.

Montag, 2. Februar 2026

Mag-C 2026 - scary Revival

Normally the Mag-C in Erfurt would be an easy going event and a great opportunity to use my small smoke machine for some amazing Cosplay shots especially using it in combination with the big curtains next to the main stages because it's perfectly blocking most of the light, so my LED RGB lights are the only relevant source of light and the smoke catches that colorful efffect perfectly...

BUT if you try to update the firmware of your camera the night before the event - just because there is a new sensor shift feature to create massive pictures, which is completely useless for portraits - and your battery fails during the installation process, you are doomed, because you made your cam a giant and very expensive "BRICK" being unasable.

Without a real cam (my CANON R5) going to the convention would be quite pointless, therefore I skipped day 1 completely while trying all day long to "revive" our big brick - it didn't work.

And once again there's a big BUT, because of some sort of "miracle" I was lucky in the morning trying a hard reset for one more time - I had already made a backup plan and prepared my GoPro as well as my DJI OSMO Pocket to be able to make at least a few pictures and capturing some of the convention's flare and impressions - luckily that HARD RESET worked and my R5 had its "REBIRTH", so I didn't need to rely on my small sensors.

The Mag-C originated from Magdeburg, therefore it kept the name but changed the location to Erfurt. It's already my third time and it's always a good mixture of Otaku convention but also fair. The event line-up itself with all those contests and photo opportunities as well as some Cosplay Influencer meet and greets is ok but especially the hall with all those vendors is more and more disappointing but not just at this con, but on all of them. Very often they either offer the same TEMU und Ali Express drop shipping low quality scam or overpriced prize game figures from Japan which were bought in bulk. In Japan those items are mostly cheap and can be obtained at crane games or HobbyOff shops for little money. And the "good stuff" is sold for 3-5+ times of the original price in Japan. That's why I don't buy at any of those booths for years and get my stuff, if I want something, directly in Japan when I do my trips. Normally I always try to find Game Guides or Artbooks with concept art and add some Games for the archive.

At the photo booths they had a nice throne this year, so I am not sad having missed my chances to visit DEDECO this year, because COSBOX is always having a nice Gothic set with a throne-like seat.

And here are some of the assets we created: