BIO

I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From the age of five we moved every three or four years. My father was in the air force and when his assignment was over, we packed up and left to some place new. We lived in numerous places growing up including Chitose (Kuma Air Station) in Hokkaido, Japan and Clark Air Force Base in Philippines. Looking back there was a real adventure to it. It’s become the symbol for my life. It was my freshman year in high school. We had just moved to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. An interesting synchronous anecdote; Annie Leibovitz's father was in the air force and they lived at Clark a few years earlier. My father had been using a really cool Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder from when we lived in Japan and I was influenced my him always taking pictures. Just after we arrived at Clark he bought a new 35mm system, a Yashica FR, 35mm SLR with two lenses, a 28 and 50mm. I just loved that camera. I took my first photography class and it was like peas and carrots. I still love to use single focal length lenses. By age fifteen, fueled by my enthusiasm for skateboarding at the time, became a Pepsi Skateboard Team Photographer. I don’t remember how it happened, but all my friends got on the team and I became the photographer. There was a real sense of something happening that was just so much fun. It was pretty cool for being only 15-16 years old. I spent a short time going to Art Center in Pasadena, California and was mildly interested in car design, but also photography. I realized I didn't want to be in an office and wanted a more dynamic job in the field and I wanted to see the world. I had a chance meeting with an influential New York photographer who said, “assisting is where you will learn and New York is the place to be." It spoke to my heart. I wanted to be in the trenches on the front lines. I set sail for New York. I wanted a life that was my own. When I was a Pepsi Skateboard Team photographer at fifteen. We just went out there and did it. I wanted to learn by doing, not learn by being in a laboratory. There is a total joy in that for me. It makes you feel alive. No only that, you bring an enthusiasm to the table that is priceless. There is something about doing, trial and error, like explorers pursuing the limitless horizon. You don't know what is out there, but you know that is where you want to be. To me, photography is about curiosity, seeing, being in the moment - a metaphor for life. This is where the rubber meets the road. Within the first three months of moving to New York, I was fortunate to assist the legendary photographer Steven Klein. Assisting Steven was an absolutely inspiring experience and going to work at his studio in the Meat Packing District was always exciting. We would work on and some extraordinary sets and there was always a very famous person coming in he was shooting. I also assisted a prominent travel photographer; another seminal experience that was the inspiration for me to become a travel photographer. I'd never even considered travel photography in a serious way before. To me, travel photography was always a mystery job. You never meet travel photographers - suddenly it had a face became tangible. For me, photography is a visceral experience. Creating images is not a fixed quantity. I’m mindful not to go into an assignment with too many pre-conceived notions of what to expect. It's not unusual that the most authentic, interesting, and original images occur very spontaneously. Among the clients Raymond has shot for are: Ichinomiya Kougyo Kabushiki Gaisha (steel company, Japan) and the IBM Annual Report. Work has appeared in these publications and others: Vogue China and Taiwan, GQ Germany, Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveller (UK). Raymond recently shot assignments in western Australia, Ireland, Turkey, New York, Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido, Japan. Over the span of his career he has shot in over thirty countries. Raymond is represented in Tokyo by Image Artists Agency and represented by Wonderful Machine in America. Raymond is based in New York, but splits his time between Tokyo. Thank you for taking the time to read my bio, it's a little long winded, but I wanted it to be a real bio where you know something about me and thanks for viewing my site. I hope you have an inspired day!