A couple of weeks ago I was flipping through the latest issue of the photo magazine PHaT, which stands for Pretty Hot And Tempting. (Since the magazine’s cover always features without fail a fetching female model, I wonder if this double entendre is intentional or not.) Although not exclusively about Japanese photographers, on the whole it’s not very common for any Japanese photo magazine to feature the work of non-Japanese who are not yet famous. So imagine my surprise when from out of my page turning popped the name Shane Lavalette, an up-and-coming American photographer that happens to be one of my Flickr contacts and whose blog I have read for a couple of years now.

I was curious to know how this short piece came about, and Shane graciously replied to a few questions via email before he was about to fly off to India.

According to Shane, “The piece came about through Andy Adams, editor of the online magazine Flak Photo, which I have contributed to in the past. Andy was approached by the editor of PHAT Photo and asked to choose a few photographers that he particularly liked or felt were “up and coming.”

The magazine chose to focus on Shane’s series of photographs taken at Coney Island entitled “Song to a Seagull” (2007). “That was the choice of both Andy and the editor at PHAT Photo”, says Shane. “I might have chosen different ones or at least included one portrait, as the people are also very important to that body of work.”

Shane wasn’t sure how Japanese might see his work, but added, “Though ‘zen’ is not the word I’d use, I think there is a certain element of balance and an emphasis on contemplation that I strive for in many of my images. This may appeal to a Japanese audience. But I hope that my work can resonate in Japan as easily as it would anywhere.”

In addition to his photography and his own blog, Shane has been contributing interviews and articles to various places like Photo Eye and Big RED & Shiny. His latest venture mixing photography with essays and criticism is Lay Flat, which will exist as a printed publication. Although Shane first announced the publication about a year ago, he ran into various hiccups and funding issues but finally the first issue is around the corner. “The files have just been sent off to the printer and they will be shipping all of the copies to me sometime within the next few weeks.” Once Shane returns from India at the end of this month, then the tough work of distributing will begin.