Photographer HAL is about Photographer HAL.

Photographer HAL is a list of things about him.

Photographer HAL can be read in any order.

Photographer HAL is a moniker for a real name I don’t know.

Photographer HAL was born in the 1970s.

Photographer HAL lives and works in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Photographer HAL is the son of a car designer.

Photographer HAL tried to be like his father.

Photographer HAL realized he didn’t want anything to do with cars.

Photographer HAL traveled to the Middle East and South East Asia.

Photographer HAL brought a camera and took photographs of people.

Photographer HAL is an essay.

Photographer HAL has a thesis, introduction, body and eventually conclusion.

Photographer HAL takes photographs of couples.

Photographer HAL is represented by Tosei Gallery in Tokyo.

Photographer HAL published a first book called Pinky & Killer in 2007.

Photographer HAL published a second book called Couple Jam in 2009.

Photographer HAL published a third book called Flesh Love in 2011.

Photographer HAL basically puts couples into large plastic bags and vacuum seals them.

Photographer HAL wants to put couples together as tightly as possible.

Photographer HAL finds couples around bars, nightclubs, and anywhere in Tokyo.

Photographer HAL sometimes asks them to take off their clothes before entering the bag.

Photographer HAL sometimes decides what the couples should wear.

Photographer HAL let my boyfriend and I visit his studio to do this.

Photographer HAL suggested that instead of him visiting us in California, that we visit him in Tokyo.

Photographer HAL asked us to bring all of our travel items to his studio.

Photographer HAL wasn’t satisfied with the scarce travel items we brought, so he drove us back to our hotel in the south end of Tokyo.

Photographer HAL had a shiny black Volkswagon van.

Photographer HAL had one assistant.

Photographer HAL sat us down on a couch and gave us teas and snacks.

Photographer HAL wanted to know why we came all the way from California to go inside a plastic bag in Tokyo.

Photographer HAL spoke very little English.

Photographer HAL had a language translation device and typed into it often.

Photographer HAL asked if we wanted to shoot the photo naked.

Photographer HAL played loud electronic pop music.

Photographer HAL set up proper lighting.

Photographer HAL brought a long vacuum tube from another room.

Photographer HAL gave the tube to his assistant to blow air into the plastic bag while he arranged our bodies.

Photographer HAL asked us if we felt OK.

Photographer HAL apologized once or twice.

Photographer HAL sealed the bag shut.

Photographer HAL started to vacuum the air out of the bag while my boyfriend and I said I love you and clung to each other.

Photographer HAL counted 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 while we held our breaths.

Photographer HAL hurried to unzip it the bag.

Photographer HAL gave us oxygen cans.

Photographer HAL gave us cold gel patches for our foreheads.

Photographer HAL asked if we were OK.

Photographer HAL was concerned that I started to panic.

Photographer HAL uploaded the photo onto his computer and showed us what we looked like.

Photographer HAL said we had to do it again.

Photographer HAL said in an interview: “When you embrace your lover, sometimes you wish to melt right into them. To realize this wish, I’ve been photographing couples in small, or even cramped spaces like motels and bathtubs. As my work has become more and more intense, I’ve noticed that communication is indispensable. This time, I reached the point of photographing couples in vacuum-sealed packs, in a set that I’ve constructed in my own kitchen. The lights are in the ceiling, so I just flip one switch and have everything ready. I have a few different colored paper backgrounds, which I can leave rolled up in the corner. 


After the couple get in the vacuum pack, I suck the air out with a 
vacuum cleaner until there’s none left. This gives me 10 seconds to 
take the shot. In this extremely limited time I can’t release the shutter more than twice. I’ve been in there myself, and the fear I felt was overwhelming. As the shooting continues over multiple takes, the pressure of the vacuum seal grows stronger. At the same time, the two bodies start to communicate, and whether through unevenness 
of limbs or the curve of joints they begin to draw a shape of what 
they want to express. The two lovers draw closer until they finally transform into a single being.”

Photographer HAL waited for me to feel better.

Photographer HAL sprayed oxygen into my mouth and around my face.

Photographer HAL sealed the bag again.

Photographer HAL pinched the bag near my nose and mouth so I could breathe.

Photographer HAL counted 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 while we held our breaths.

Photographer HAL hurried to unzip the bag.

Photographer HAL sensed my anxiety getting worse.

Photographer HAL asked if I was OK.

Photographer HAL uploaded the second photo onto this computer and showed us what we looked like.

Photographer HAL was more pleased with the second one.

Photographer HAL said to take a break.

Photographer HAL took our things out of our luggage and arranged them into the plastic bag.

Photographer HAL walked in and out of the room several times.

Photographer HAL sent his assistant to check on me in the bathroom.

Photographer HAL and his assistant spoke to each other in Japanese.

Photographer HAL wanted to make sure I was OK to do it a third time.

Photographer HAL waited while I rested on the couch.

Photographer HAL made a collage of our things in the plastic bag.

Photographer HAL asked if I was OK to do it again one last time.

Photographer HAL sealed the bag shut.

Photographer HAL started to vacuum the air out of the bag while my boyfriend and I said I love you and clung to each other.

Photographer HAL counted 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 while we held our breaths.

Photographer HAL hurried to unzip the bag.

Photographer HAL might have felt bad so he asked us if we could get coffee, which actually meant dinner.

Photographer HAL showed his assistant and us the Japanese folding technique, which is an efficient way of folding shirts.

Photographer HAL and his assistant folded all of our clothes and put them in our suitcases.

Photographer HAL gave us a release form to sign.

Photographer HAL said he would email us the photos in a few days.

Photographer HAL carried my bag and had us follow him to his favorite sushi restaurant in Shinjuku.

Photographer HAL proudly ordered us octopus.

Photographer HAL ceremoniously poured us sake.

Photographer HAL used his language translation device to understand a conversation we were having with his assistant about Japanese literature.

Photographer HAL wondered if Murakami was translated well into English because of the sound elements.

Photographer HAL poured us more sake and asked if we liked the octopus.

Photographer HAL spoke to the chefs from our table.

Photographer HAL said he visited Arizona one time to shoot Hadeki Matsui from a high crane on a windy day and how scary it was.

Photographer HAL said he wanted to leave artwork behind as proof that he lived.

Photographer HAL stood up to use the restroom.

Photographer HAL came back to the table.

Photographer HAL wanted to understand what we were talking about.

Photographer HAL asked what conceptual writing is.

Photographer HAL said he never heard of it.

Photographer HAL smiled.

Photographer HAL typed into his language translation device.

Photographer HAL looked us straight in the eye.

Photographer HAL would ask his assistant something in Japanese.

Photographer HAL ate all of his sushi.

Photographer HAL paid for dinner without telling us.

Photographer HAL led us out of the restaurant and deeply said thank you to the chefs.

Photographer HAL carried my bag and pulled my suitcase until we reached a train station.

Photographer HAL confidently walked in front of us.

Photographer HAL asked a stranger on the street to take a photo of all of us in front of the train station.

Photographer HAL walked us into the train station and asked for a map from the information booth.

Photographer HAL circled the stations we had to switch to get to other lines.

Photographer HAL instructed us to go to Ueno station to switch trains to get to Toride.

Photographer HAL handed me my bag and suitcase.

Photographer HAL shook our hands and lightly hugged us goodbye.

Photographer HAL waited until we went through the turnstile.

Photographer HAL waved goodbye again when I turned around to see if he was still there.

Photographer HAL became a memory over the course of one week.

Photographer HAL sent an email of the photos exactly one week after we met him.

Photographer HAL is in a photo I took on Instagram.

Photographer HAL is mysterious.

Photographer HAL wrote in an email to “up road the photo”.

Photographer HAL has an interesting way of misspelling English words.

Photographer HAL probably wants to sleep with some of his subjects.

Photographer HAL has a grey couch in his studio.

Photographer HAL has loved at least a few people.

Photographer HAL I would guess likes to swim.

Photographer HAL has vacuum-sealed more than one hundred couples in a plastic bag.

Photographer HAL has put people together as physically as possible.

Photographer HAL values love.

Photographer HAL things vacuum sealing couples together is a means of seeing their truth.

Photographer HAL knows the image ultimately doesn’t lie.

Photographer HAL has never watched House by film director Nobuhiko Obayashi.

Photographer HAL travels often.

Photographer HAL is not on Facebook.

Photographer HAL recommended the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi.

Photographer HAL has exhibited his photographs in California.

Photographer HAL has one younger sibling because of the way he walked in front of us.

Photographer HAL’s people tried to colonize my people fifty years ago.

Photographer HAL likes to watch people.

Photographer HAL has teeth though I can’t remember what they look like.

Photographer HAL wore a black hat, which makes me think maybe he is balding.

Photographer HAL didn’t know I have a sprained ankle.

Photographer HAL seems like he listens to Oorutaichi.

Photographer HAL might have hundreds of friends, it’s hard to tell.

Photographer HAL might be married, have children, it’s hard to tell.

Photographer HAL might have lost one or both of his parents, it’s hard to tell.

Photographer HAL might be a Pisces, it’s hard to tell.

Photographer HAL definitely lives alone.

Photographer HAL definitely is a non-smoker.

Photographer HAL definitely doesn’t have a cat.

Photographer HAL definitely doesn’t care much for karaoke.

Photographer HAL probably prefers sushi to corn dogs.

Photographer HAL probably bought something from 7 Eleven not too long ago.

Photographer HAL probably prefers women.

Photographer HAL probably knows about the man made beach in Miyazaki.

Photographer HAL was someone I found on the Internet.

Photographer HAL was someone I did not expect to meet.

Photographer HAL was someone who reminded me of someone I once knew.

Photographer HAL was someone who saw something about me that I’ll never know.