Essentials: Yasumasa "Yone" Yonehara

For our newest edition of HYPEBEAST Essentials we feature Harajuku photographer and all-around guru of young fashion, Yasumasa “YONE” Yonehara. The 54-year-old Japanese native is most notoriously known for his raunchy-yet-tasteful photography of sexy and cute Asian women in very revealing clothing and seductive poses. Having started his career as the creative director for Egg, a magazine devoted to youth fashion, YONE’s continuing career brings him all over the world to promote his imaginative work, collaborations with FUJIFILM, and numerous galleries all over the world.

It is expected that a photographer would carry a camera or two – YONE carries at least five individual cameras with him at any given time. His work is predominantly done with “cheki” or instant film cameras, notably the FUJIFILM Instax Mini series, but also requires quick and easy digital cameras for parties and studio shots. Alongside the technology, numerous hats from varying brands such as Stussy, Supreme, New Era and Carhartt fill his travel bag, protected by a proprietary case of course, for his visits to both foreign and domestic locales. When we asked this expert of erotic if these items were all that he wanted to submit, he smiled and replied “cameras and hats. What else do I really need?”