Noel tells Silver, “For me, photography has a very strong sense of being a painting of light—like burning the light in front of your eyes onto films—just as the word ‘light picture’ was originally used. My style as a photographer places great significance on light, therefore this value is very important to me. This feeling is better captured on analog cameras, so I mostly use film. I like the feeling of burning the imprint with my whole body when firing the camera shutter. Because of their analog nature, you can be more experimental with film—for example, deliberately exposing it or overlapping landscape and people—flexibility is what’s attractive about film.
I’ve been using this Olympus camera for about seven years, and this is about my 30th one.
Since I use them intensely, they break quickly—but I buy the same model over and over. I love it because it portrays light with great clarity and honesty. I find sunlight to be the most beautiful so I’m curious to see if I can use it to create light like we’ve never seen before; so I’ve had artists make custom-colored crystals for me and I’ve also used a machine that creates rainbow-colored lights.” You can’t take good pictures if you’re not enjoying the process yourself—as her motto tells us, this is the driving force behind her ability to capture unique images. Dedication without boundaries between work and private life, and joy found in challenging photography allow Noel to explore photography itself and her overflowing quest for light.
 
 
 

Takako Noel As a photographer and visual artist, Noel works for numerous fashion magazines in Japan and abroad. She applies watercolor and fruits to decorate printed images, creating her unique and dreamy world.