We explore the Japanese basketball scene through an interesting conversation with Steve Gaudin, a French photographer who one day, somewhat by chance, decided to take a trip to Tokyo and never went back. At least for now.

Interview by Overseas

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” reads a famous lyric from John Lennon’s song: “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”. It is a very curious concept that, sooner or later, we all experience in some way. You may make the mistake of thinking that this quote hints at a certain lack of control we have in our lives. Why sweat over planning my future endeavors, if life then takes its own spin on my destiny anyways? It is not quite like that, because it is exactly that strategized will to move forward that brings us, perhaps unconsciously, one step closer to our future. In all this, we must also remember where we come from, as that will never leave us and serves as the foundation for who we are, and will be. Steve Gaudin comes from a family that raised him with museums for breakfast and art education for dinner, which is something he never fails to remember and remind. His original plan was to work in the movie industry, until he randomly met the opportunity to work with analog photography and realized he had a hidden burning passion for it. Nevertheless, on the way to actualizing his plan, all it took was a flight from Paris to Tokyo to change his life forever. With Japan, it was love at first sight and when you love this hard, life presents you with wonderful opportunities. One of which showed up, once again, unplanned. Steve started playing street basketball to stay in shape and meet new people. Fast forward to just a few years later and he would shoot a documentary with his idol Stephen Curry. It’s extraordinary where life can take you unexpectedly, if you ride the waves; Steve had no hesitation and is still riding them.

How did your passion for photography start and how did you first encounter basketball?

Since I was a kid, I always wanted to work in the field of the visual arts. I owe that to the education my parents gave me: rich in various museum visits and entertaining me by reading materials at home. I wanted to be an illustrator until I was around 13-14 years old, which is when I switched my focus to cinema. After finishing high school, I went to a film school near Paris, which was my first contact with analog photography. My first 8 years of photography were mainly analog, until I slowly switched to digital in the early 2010’s.

I started studying in Paris under two fine art photographers that were teaching me darkroom techniques and documentary photography. The work of documentary photographers ala Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Sebastiao Salgado (and many others) were the ones that resonated with me the most at the time, and lit my passion for photography. I ultimately realized that photography as a medium was a better fit for me than the movie production industry, as I could be more in control of the project I was working on. I quit film school to focus on photography and my new passion at that time: Japan.

I have always been more of an “indoor” person than “outdoor” in my spare time, but basketball was the only thing that really made me want to go out and play. I would just bring my ball to the local playground and play with friends or whoever was there, but looking back at it now I think I probably only knew half of the rules. Nobody really taught me how to shoot the ball properly until after my 20s, when I also started diving deep into basketball culture.

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How did you end up in Tokyo and what have you found there that is so special?

I took a trip to Japan with my father in August 2006 when I was 18, and I instantly fell in love with the place. The warm welcome of its people, the delicious food at every corner, and the mesmerizing scene that is Tokyo, buzzing with millions of people but still incredibly safe and clean. After coming back to Paris, I quickly realized that all I was thinking about was going back there, whether on a short trip or longer stay if possible. I shifted my focus from film school to Japanese language studies, while still practicing photography. I cannot really name one thing in particular that really struck me as “special” in Japan, as for me they are countless. Even the simple daily life was full of surprises and something that was ordinary for a Japanese person seemed so unique to me. Every little detail of Japanese society, its inhabitants, its culture, was fascinating. A real cultural shock that I never felt anywhere else until then. I became obsessed.

After 3 years in Paris majoring in Japanese language and culture studies I moved to Tokyo on a one year exchange program. I entered a basketball “circle” (Japanese universities call “circles” all extracurricular activities) which strengthened my love for the game. At that point I realized that I was enjoying the full experience of living in Tokyo, and not just the tourist experience; it was time to find a way to stay. I became good friends with a fellow student at the university’s photography club that introduced me to the idea of working in a photo studio, where I would dive more into fashion and commercial photography. I spent my next two years working as an assistant in this tough army-style Japanese environment with intense hours and barely any vacations; but it was at the same time extremely rewarding to broaden my knowledge and experience and I would do it again in a blink of an eye.

I left Tokyo after those two years in a studio, and went on to work with a fashion photographer called Takay in NYC for the following 3 years.

Being bathed in American basketball culture (there were around 6 full court playgrounds in a 5 minute walking radius from my place) and going to see my first NBA game at the Oracle Arena in Oakland (Warriors vs Clippers) is what set the fire to my basketball obsession. After NYC, I spent one year in Paris, scouting playgrounds and shooting courts and players I would encounter. I missed Japan and came back right after. It has now been 6 years.

What are your reference points in photography and what do you aim to express with your art?

I have always been fascinated by demonstration of high technical skills, in various disciplines. May it be martial arts, sports, dancing, drawing, or even leisure activities like video games. The approach of photography that had documentary photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson was exactly that for me. The concept of capturing the “decisive moment” resonated with me and felt like a pure art form mixed with skill.

“The decisive moment”; for instance the moment when all elements of the picture come together perfectly, fascinated me. Trying to recognize all those moving elements in an uncontrolled environment, frame it right, and press the shutter button at the right moment, only to wait until the film is developed to see the result is magical. Even though I have been mainly shooting digital for the past decade, the chase of the decisive moment is still present in my work to this day, except that I do not have to wait anymore to see the picture I just shot. I try to express the “real” in an organic way. The “authentic”, through the looking glass that is my creative choices at that very moment. “Poetry in motion” is a saying that I often get back to when I am shooting, whether it be a street ball player on the local playground or a model/dancer on an editorial shoot. I chase those fractions of a moment that you would maybe notice but not remember, and try to isolate it. There is a beauty in the moment of effort, in the blur, in the imperfections that lines up perfectly, that make basketball as a subject always entertaining.

Can you share a particular anecdote from your basketball experiences in Tokyo? Which is your favorite photo describing Tokyo's basketball community?

It is difficult to pick one particular moment, but if I had to choose it would have to be one of those times when I made a new friend on the court, and that friendship evolved into much more than expected.

Summer of 2017, I was moving back from NYC, I went to Tokyo for a month in August before going back to settle down in Paris. I was staying in this area called Nakameguro, near a park with a half court where people always play 3 on 3 and 4 on 4. I played a whole afternoon there, and became friends with Goki, an excellent young player with lots of character and flair in his play style. When I moved to Japan a year later, we became close and he introduced me to many people on the Tokyo basketball scene: players, basketball apparel brand people, event organizers. From that single friendship stemmed many new ones, which some of them even ended being creative collaborators, or even clients. You never know who you are really playing with until later when you get to really know them, and I always find that exciting.

Another anecdote would be that time I got the opportunity to shoot Stephen Curry for the documentary shoot about his Underrated tour in Japan in 2019. It was my first NBA player to meet up close, and as he happens to be my favorite current NBA player, you can imagine the excitement. The fact that this job went my way because I started capturing people on street courts a few years earlier is such an amazing thing to experience.

What makes Tokyo's basketball community different from other in the world? What can Japanese basketball teach to the rest of the world and vice versa?

Each city’s community is often marked by its inhabitants' social norms and behavior, and Japan is no exception. The Japanese are often seen as reserved, respectful of the other, and putting the group before themselves. On the courts, it can result in more people practicing on their own, instead of playing pickup games. Of course, this is not a generalization as hot spots of pickup games also exist, but there is a natural tendency not to ask others to play just by fear of bothering the other person. I always found that interesting, compared to the instant “wanna play?” I would get in Paris or NYC courts. I feel that Japanese players tend to be less cocky than other countries I played in. However the “better skilled the player the more cocky they get”-rule also exists here.

What do you expect from your professional future?
I would like to put more of my time and sweat into personal work, as opposed to client work. It is hard to balance both sometimes. I also want to focus on making more printed work, maybe on zines, art books, apparel. Whatever the medium, having something tangible is always special, even more so in this day an age of doom-scrolling where people are constantly bombarded with content.