Basketball Freak - An Editorial by Steve Gaudin

While shooting stills for a documentary about NBA player Stephen Curry, photographer Steve Gaudin met ZiNEZ a.k.a KAMIKAZE. A Yokohama based freestyle streetballer. Soon the idea emerged to shoot a fashion story, circling around Jinji’s ball handling skills and the styling of Yuji Nakata, who often plays with layered clothes.

Basketball Freak - An Editorial by Steve Gaudin

vest: KAPITAL

pants: vintage HERMES

shoes: vintage LL.BEAN

others: stylist's own

The original concept was to let ZiNEZ move freely in front of the camera, and perform his unique freestyle basketball routine, however, he is usually wearing clothes that doesn’t impair his movement, this time he would be wearing Yuji’s styling, which is very layered, hence heavy, going in the way of his movement and visual awareness, as he is mostly wearing masks or cloth in front of his eyes.

coat: vintage ISSEYMIYAKE

pants: vintage ISSEYMIYAKE

others: stylist's own

Gaudin’s ideas was it to make him look surreal, like a ghost or a being of another plane of existence that doesn’t obey to the same physics rules as we do. 

He says even though he didn’t think about it before and during the shoot, after looking at the pictures again at the end of the day, the graphical aesthetics reminded him of the work of Shohei Otomo, his favourite contemporary Japanese artist. This was not premeditated, but Shohei’s work likely influenced his direction, even if it was subconscious at the time.

stall: KAPITAL

outer: Napa by Martin Rose

pants: vintage YOHJI YAMAMOTO

Credits

Talent: ZiNEZ a.k.a KAMIKAZE
Photographer: Steve Gaudin
Stylist: Yuji Nakata
Hair & Makeup: Risa Chino