About me

I'm Nikkei, a photographer, filmmaker, designer and creative director based in New York. With over a decade behind a camera, the last six years has been spent entirely on restaurants, bars & cafes.

My eye came from documentary and photo journalism before it ever came from a client brief. Documentary photography, the afternoon light perfectly grazing the subject, the second before someone sits down to eat. That instinct doesn't switch off once the shoot starts but it decides where the camera goes, what stays in frame, and what gets cut in the edit.

I've built photography, video, design and motion for more than 35 hospitality brands across the US, UK and Philippines, including several years leading creative for a UK hospitality marketing agency before going independent.

A UK restaurant grew table bookings 83 percent in four months, weekly online sales at an Indian takeaway spot jumped 200 percent in twelve weeks. Nine days into working with 87 Ludlow here in New York, revenue was already up 32 percent on the same period last year.

That comes from the actual art of perceiving what a room is trying to say, then having the range to answer it in whatever form the answer needs.

I'm now putting that same eye into my own practice, working directly with New York's restaurants, bars and cafes, no agency between the idea and the person who has to make it real.