Me in my tiny room in Calcutta, India in May 2000

Born and raised in Berkeley, California by an easy going, atmospheric computer modeler, Japanese-American father and a spunky, gum surgeon, Danish mother, I've turned out to be a spunky, easy going half Japanese, half Danish photographer with well kept teeth...or something like that.

I am a third year undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley majoring in Documentary Photography and American Identity, a major that I am creating for myself through American Studies. For the last few years I have been working at The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley's student run newspaper as a photographer, photo-assistant, and co-photo editor.

In the fall of 1999 I decided to take a year off from the university and take a break from the mess which was my academics. Instead I worked and traveled around the world with four of my closest friends. For my first semester off I worked both at The Daily Cal and at Templeton/Leverette Company, a real estate agency. There I was the advertising coordinator as well as company photographer. The second semester I spent traveling around the world with my friends. We started in Vietnam and went through Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India (where I worked as an intern photographer for The Statesman), Italy and England. Our traveling crew kept a web site documenting our travels and experiences called The Nomadic 5, check it out.

Now I am continuing with my academics at UC Berkeley and plan on excelling in my career as a professional photographer and photojournalist.