Your "Unfinished" Might Be Someone Else’s Masterpiece

As always, thanks for being here.

I took a short break from the newsletter last week because of the Obon holidays here in Japan—a season when we honor our ancestors. I spent some time up north, visiting my late grandparents’ home in Hokkaido.

But I haven’t been idle these past few weeks.

As many of you know, I run a platform called FAR EAST DARKROOM (FED.), with the goal of introducing emerging Japanese and Asian photographers to the world. Lately, I’ve been working on a brand-new project under FED.

That project is a zine made with traditional Japanese binding. This time, I’m publishing a zine called Entropy by my photographer friend Haruki. From printing to binding, every step was done entirely by hand—and for the binding, we used the intricate Japanese technique known as “Japanese binding.”

In this edition of the newsletter, I’ll be sharing the behind-the-scenes story of how Entropy came together. If you’re interested in zine-making, I think you’ll find it full of helpful insights.

🎨 He Used to Think He Wasn’t Creative

Though I’m no longer involved in running it, I started a street photography community called TOKYO-SPC back in 2018. One of the earliest members to join was a photographer named Haruki (@haruhui32).

Before he got into street photography, Haruki used to believe that he wasn’t a creative person. To him, doing something creative meant mastering tools or techniques—like learning an instrument to make music, or spending years practicing to draw or paint well. (And let’s be honest—when people say “anyone can draw like Picasso,” they’re ignoring how insanely skilled he already was as a teenager.)

So Haruki thought creativity was something that had to be built up over a lifetime, starting from a young age.

But then he realized something: with photography, all you need to get started is a camera.
That simple realization drew him deep into the world of photography. And more recently, he’s expanded beyond just street photos—he’s been exploring and photographing abandoned buildings across Japan.

🏩 “Who Would Ever Buy a Photo of an Abandoned Building?”

Haruki and I get along really well. We often go out shooting together—or just out drinking. And just recently, along with two other photographer friends, YOUNG HAMA and GASO, the four of us held a special two-day photo exhibition.

The title of the show was “Shashin Exhibition”—using the word shashin (which typically means “photography” in Japanese), but written with alternative kanji: “捨真” instead of the usual “写真.”

While the standard word means “photograph,” the kanji we chose literally means “to throw away truth.” The idea was to let go of our past obsessions with photography—to free ourselves from mental constraints and set off on a new photographic journey.

So for this exhibition, we sold our prints at incredibly low prices, available only for those two days. But Haruki had his doubts.

“Who would want to buy my photos?”

Most of what he exhibited were photos of abandoned places—haikyo. He figured no one would be interested in buying those. But what happened over those two days? Nearly 20 people bought Haruki’s prints.

He was stunned, and genuinely moved. Anyone who’s ever sold a print knows the feeling—you never forget the first time someone buys your work. That moment meant everything to him. It was two days he’ll never forget.

⛓️‍💥 This Isn’t the Final Version. It’s the First Connection.

Even before our group show, I had been encouraging Haruki to make a zine. But he kept saying, “I don’t have enough good photos to put something together yet.”

But I knew his work was already amazing—so I told him, “Let’s make it together under FAR EAST DARKROOM. I’ll cover the production costs.” And that’s how our zine project began.

When we finally held the finished zine in our hands, Haruki looked at it and said, “I can’t believe my photos turned into something this beautiful.”

That’s the magic of zines.
As I’ve said again and again in this newsletter, a zine doesn’t need to be a perfectly polished photo book. 

A zine is like a demotape—something you make and put out into the world to say, “Hey, this is what I’m working on right now.” It’s a way to let people discover you and your work.

📇 Why We Didn’t Go with a Professional Printer

The title of this zine—“Entropy”—comes from the law of entropy in physics, which says that all things tend to lose order over time and move toward a more chaotic state.

The abandoned buildings Haruki photographs are symbols of that natural decay. While we can’t stop this transformation, we can preserve a single moment through photography.
This zine is Haruki’s quiet act of resistance—his way of freezing fragments of time before they disappear.

And if we were going to send this resistance out into the world from Japan—a country on the edge of the map—we felt it made sense to use traditional Japanese binding and washi paper to reflect that intention.

Of course, punching holes and threading string by hand to bind each copy takes a lot of time. But for a zine that’s meant to carry Haruki’s quiet defiance, we felt the manual process was necessary. It brings the zine to life in a way mass production can’t.

We also wanted to push back against a world where photography is consumed only as data on a screen. This had to be physical—something that feels good in your hands. That’s why we chose Ise washi, a type of textured Japanese paper that’s beautiful to touch.

But washi like this doesn’t come up as an option in affordable printing services. If we wanted to use it, we had no choice but to make each copy by hand.

🤝 Support Haruki’s Debut Zine — “Entropy” Now Available (50 Copies Only)

Haruki’s debut zine Entropy is finally here. Featuring 19 images across 42 pages, each copy is fully handmade from start to finish.
Since the production is entirely manual, we’re limiting this edition to just 50 copies.

If you want to support Haruki’s photography journey, are curious about Japan’s haunting abandoned sites, or simply want to experience the beauty of Japanese binding for yourself—be sure to grab a copy before it sells out.

Thanks for reading until the end. See you next week!

🎂 Love The Indies Just Turned One!

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been a full year since I started this newsletter. If you’ve been reading along, thank you so much.

Writing every week, all on my own, has definitely been a lonely kind of commitment—but somehow, nearly 700 of you are now subscribed. That means the world to me.

I plan to keep this going, but I’m also thinking about refreshing things a little. So, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you’ve got a minute, could you answer a short 6-question survey linked below?

👉 Take the Survey here 👈

Seriously—thank you.

My Instagram: @_nuts.tokyo_
My YouTube: @fareastdarkroom