Anyhow–whatever the reason for my animosity–I saw this couple, hated them and flashed at them. Three times. Each one capturing a slightly more shocked expression. It was my intention. I wanted people like this to be outed in some way–I found it appropriate to shoot them in the same way as a paparazzi would.

So goes a recent interview of Charlie Kirk, British photographer going by the handle Two Cute Dogs.

Although now living in UK, Charlie had been in Tokyo for many years and doing street photography. That’s about all I know about him, the rest is guess. A strongly opinionated person I’d dare to assume.

I can only recommend you to have a look at his work (on Burn My Eye, on Tumblr, not on Flickr anymore; note it can be NSFW). His style is remarkable, using flash to take street portraits in an intrusive, aggressive manner. Some of his shots are truly fascinating. In the interview, he explains how he took what would become his single most famous shot.

The point of this post was only to mention that interview, but while I’m at it, here is a documentary by Adrian Storey. There’s even a TL;DR version, ahem, trailer.

At last underneath his portrait of Charlie Kirk, Jason Comb also writes:

Everywhere and especially in Tokyo people put on a mask of sorts to project an image of how they want people to see them. Charlie’s work is as if he pulls off that mask, then captures what’s under that mask to reveal something more interesting. Of course this isn’t for everyone and some people don’t like it, but in a sea of mediocrity and many relying on post production to make their photos interesting Charlie is a breath of fresh air.