Kazuyoshi Shimomura hates Ayu.

[waterballoon]

Hi there.

As we know, ever since Kazuyoshi Shimomura literally monopolized Ayu's whole photography and videography section since 2007, her quality in photos especially have gone down hill.

Now, my only question is, why?

I would like to take a look at both Kazuyoshi Shimomura and Ayu.

---

Ayu:

Well, before she had Kazu take photos and film PVs for her, her photoshoots were gorgeous, her single/album covers were emotive, her PVs had no wtf-mouth movements.

That alone kind of shows that Ayu knows how to take a good photo, give the right facial expression and all that.

But ever since Kazu started taking photos for her, she has been doing very weird stuff like the infamous "fish-lips" (which works sometimes), or giving the "lost" facial expression, or getting photos taken when she's in between poses... almost like candid shots.

For her PVs, it's evident in Mirrorcle World & GREEN that she does extremely over-exaggerated mouth movements in the videos... she honestly rarely, or even never does that in her other PVs. In Sparkle, I could really feel that she was uncomfortable doing her "sexy" movements... I mean how sexy can doing Fergie poses be???

Conclusion: Whenever she's under Kazu, Ayu just does ridiculous things to her face in particular, and messing up a lot of misc. things like background, photoshopping.

---

Kazu:

Many say he's a bad photographer, but I actually beg to differ... or at least think he isn't all bad.

Kazuyoshi Shimomura takes photos of other people as well, and on example is Kuu.

For Kuu, he has taken photos of the Kingdom covers/booklets and 3 SPLASH covers/booklets.

In all honesty, without any biased opinions, are the Kingdom/3 SPLASH shots very bad? Maybe one/two of the 3 SPLASH covers are lukewarm, but in general Kuu doesn't give that "I'm lost" face, nor does her face get ripped of all emotions.

Kuu shots by Kazuyoshi Shimomura:

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Kazuyoshi Shimomura can be an okay photographer if he wants to.

Now most of us know that when a photographer comes in, even the best of models usually listen to them and go under their direction.

The main point of this thread is: Why can Kazu take decent photos of Kuu, but when it comes to Ayu, he totally messes her up? Does he hate Ayu or something, and find it a joy to make her look like a pile of (hot) mess?

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Worst pics (just some of them!) of Ayu under Kazuyoshi Shimomura:

Spoiler:

Other -good- pics of Ayu under good photographers like Leslie Kee/ND Chow:

Spoiler:

[taskinillusion]

Maybe he costs less to hire than the other photographers.

[nanakopy87]

i think the photos are ok except for the sunrise/sunset one :p

[ComatoseBunnySnatcher]

You. Are. Right.


He just messes HER up. I mean, look at the fricking Kingdom covers. I personally don't like the set of the shoot, but the covers don't have that stupid look that he gave Ayu's. Of course, maybe Ayu's posing is the problem, but there's proof of her doing good shoots.

I'm baffled.

[freedreamer]

she looks like HyunAh in the latest ViVi shot HAHAHAH...

anyway....i think....the fish lip thing is..haiz
Kazu might have wanted it to be Ayu's signature (blegh)? i dunno...

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by taskinillusion

Maybe he costs less to hire than the other photographers.

Maybe so... seeing how Leslie Kee is working with Namie Amuro now, and her latest shoots are really good.

Originally Posted by freedreamer

she looks like HyunAh in the latest ViVi shot HAHAHAH...

anyway....i think....the fish lip thing is..haiz
Kazu might have wanted it to be Ayu's signature (blegh)? i dunno...

omfg! that + the "I'm lost" face = the mark he wants to put on Ayu...

[pommy48]

kuu does the fish lips too @_@ but when ayu does it....it's just over exaggerated

i think maybe the problem doesn't just lie in kazuyoshi, but it becomes a problem if he and ayu work together

for the sake of those two....they should never come in contact with each other @_@

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by pommy48

kuu does the fish lips too @_@ but when ayu does it....it's just over exaggerated

i think maybe the problem doesn't just lie in kazuyoshi, but it becomes a problem if he and ayu work together

for the sake of those two....they should never come in contact with each other @_@

I agree. Also because Ayu is really passionate about what she does, so when she comes across something "new" or whatever, she usually wants to use it as much as she can. The fish lips and the "I'm lost" face could be that.

[octolina]

Hehe I don't think it's necessarily sabotage by Kazu... but I'm seriously worried about Ayu. Ever since her 30th birthday, 10th anniversary, she has done many drastic things. I don't exactly think Kazu is to blame... but I think he did give Ayu some sort of gay drag queen allure... (all those hand movements and such). But I think Ayu's mind is not right now. She seems paranoid. I'm not going to say she got PS, but she does not look like the Ayu I adore. Her nose is so thin and pointy... her jaw is so small (you can inject botox into the jaw for reduction of the masseter muscle) her face is sagging, and in non photoshop pics her double eyelids are disappearing! her eyes look so different now, and I hate the fake circle lens that she wears all the time now. It appears that Ayu follows trends instead of starting them now.

[krazeyo]

Originally Posted by taskinillusion

Maybe he costs less to hire than the other photographers.

Maybe he kidnapped Ayu's mom

Menh (sorry to kuu's fans) but no wonder 3 SPLASH covers are so ugly. I'm surprised that his work seems to be getting worse and worse. How can you go from fairyland covers to Sunrise/Sunset Do something similar to fairyland's cover and he would've nailed Sunrise/Sunset's theme

[Maemi]

"Hate" is a strong word. I think it's stupid to believe that he likes Kuu, but he hates Ayu. What, he works for her and he managed to get hired by her only to ruin her future career? It's hard to believe, but some people really like Sunrise/Sunset & new photoshoots. Also, I don't think Ayu would accept those photos if she doesn't like them.

Chill down, people... Oh, my personal opinion is if all those new stuff came from his mind, Ayu should find someone else, and stop looking so fugly fake. He is bad, but I don't think he hates her.

[AyuTan]

Besides Sunrise/Sunset I think the photos are good. I absolutely LOVE Mirrorcle World. And yeah I agree, "hate" is a little strong. But on the others' photos I feel like there if more of an expression, you can feel it more. He's okay...I only like him for Mirrorcle World really...

[nanakopy87]

hmm,just that ayu is not as sexy as last time anymore...because of her lips :p

[mcluva420]

i think his work goes from good to bad..
the kuu pics r awesome
sunrise/sunset was bad
GREEN/Days and that other Mirrorcle World pic were amazing!
the ViVi scans were gorgeous too~

[Aga-chan]

Perhaps he's the kind of person who's best to work with once in a while. Like "fairyland" covers and "Mirrocle World" covers. And he better stick to just photographing and keep a EXTREMELY GREAT DISTANCE when it comes to PVs.

[gothicayu]

personally i prefer leslie kee than him. i agree with you he makes ayu looks weird especially her mouth movement.

[JinHamasaki]

It's kinda obvious the Ayu/Kazu chemistry is not there. If you watch the Sparkle PV Ayu is a completely different person with him there. It's like shes intimidated by him?

Kazu: Do this! Move your hand like this! Shake you booty like this!
Ayu: ........*blank stare* (*_*)

Normally she tends to be more commanding with her photographers, Kee mentioned in the Times Magazine article how he loved working with Ayu and she did everything like the way she wanted. Didn't she also post in TA for the Sparkle PV how she had to make a bunch of "weird and erratic poses"?

[ayumisrael]

Though on glitter/fated's CD only ayu also did a fish mouth and he didn't shot those covers right? (Or did he?) xD

Now I understand why kuu's doing fish mouth on 3 SPLASH's CD+DVD cover

I think that kazuyoshi loves to make his photographed artists divas to simply put it.
He wants them to appear divaish in the PVs and photos he makes.
For some reason.

I think though that it backfires the artists though since they were never that divaish before they used him.

I do think that MW and Days/GREEN covers were GORGEOUS even though they aren't as creative (thanks to the white background imo).
Those are from ayu's best covers at least in the ayu look createria.
ayu looks pretty hot on Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ covers too but the background's edit is just cheaply made. If you don't look at ayu too much so the photoshop mistakes on ayu don't really appear major. The facial expression imo disturbs on the CD+DVD cover right away but her facial expression on the CD only is still decent. She might look mindless but it might portray an innocent look. That's why I like the CD only cover more.

[Tom Punks]

Originally Posted by octolina

Hehe I don't think it's necessarily sabotage by Kazu... but I'm seriously worried about Ayu. Ever since her 30th birthday, 10th anniversary, she has done many drastic things. I don't exactly think Kazu is to blame... but I think he did give Ayu some sort of gay drag queen allure... (all those hand movements and such). But I think Ayu's mind is not right now. She seems paranoid. I'm not going to say she got PS, but she does not look like the Ayu I adore. Her nose is so thin and pointy... her jaw is so small (you can inject botox into the jaw for reduction of the masseter muscle) her face is sagging, and in non photoshop pics her double eyelids are disappearing! her eyes look so different now, and I hate the fake circle lens that she wears all the time now. It appears that Ayu follows trends instead of starting them now.

Oh. My. God.

Finally someone else who sees it! I swear every time I see someone saying "AYU'S NOSE DOESN'T LOOK ANY DIFFERENT" or anything along those lines I'm just like "".

Ever since NEXT LEVEL came out, specifically in the NEXT LEVEL PV, Ayu has looked SOSOSO different. Her nose is WEIRD and her eyes are WEIRD. She doesn't look like Ayu at all! And in those recent magazine pics, I can't even stand to look at her!

I'm sure someone will think I'm overexaggerating, but SERIOUSLY... HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THIS?!

[ayu_fantasy]

The Leslie Kee/ND chow photos were awesome....

Omg, kazuyoshi is kinda weird person and his works are definitely not appealing....Hate him when I see sparkle PV making too... Gosh, I didn't know he's the photographer for Mirrocle world cover (I thought it was some lady), that means she pose topless in front of him?? This is crazy LOL