STOP THINKING. START SHOOTING.
What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante. Thinking is for idiots. Stop thinking. Just shoot. We need to stop thinking and start feeling from the heart — going full force with thumos, vitality, spiritedness, with your practice and everyday life.
The idea is simple: this world becomes a prison when you’re trapped in your mind. But what if I told you the key to unlock the chains is already in your pocket? When you’re caught up in thought, when you’re in your mind, that’s hell on earth. Paradise is found from within — from remembering that you’re a child, that you can take the key and unlock the door to your heart.
When you’re open, receptive, feeling, moving your body through the world while photographing, you exist outside the passage of time. Past and future aren’t our concern. The concern is the present, the ultimate gift of life.
Tokyo. Day 13. Flow State.
Here I am on this beautiful day in Tokyo. My last day. Day 13, baby.
GoPro Mini rolling in SuperView 1080p 30fps. My only goal today: remain in a perpetual flow state from morning to night.
This is my final full day shooting in the streets of Tokyo. I fly home tomorrow. So today, I’m throwing a Hail Mary — I’m heading to Komiyama Bookstore. Supposedly they’ve got an ultra-rare Daido Moriyama photo book, one of 50 copies. And maybe something by Shomatsu. I’ll hop a train and see what magic I can find.
I’ve got the Ricoh GF2 flash mounted on my Ricoh GR III, walking through this grungy Shinjuku alleyway photographing grit, grime, textures — everything. Last night the police stopped me in an alley. I showed them the LCD like, “Look, I’m just photographing walls.” Pretty funny. What’s this American dude doing back here?
On Change, Transformation, and Joy
I’m thinking a lot today about change — what it means to change.
To change is happiness.
To change is joy.
To change is bliss.
Transformation. Metamorphosis. Evolution. That’s peak human flourishing.
I’ve been changing a lot on this trip. Shooting black and white for three years was a huge shift, but even now — throwing flash into the mix, dual-wielding cameras, Ricoh GR III and GR IIIx, 40mm, 71mm crop — I’m really pushing myself. I’m pushing the limits within myself.
I refuse to stay stagnant. Motivation = movere = to move.
Motivation isn’t external. It’s in your legs, in the act of moving through the world.
Just start moving. Stop thinking. Follow your joy.
You Cannot Make the Same Photograph Twice
I hit a wall shooting color. But now?
High-contrast black and white.
Light and shadow.
Returning to the essence.
Fos = light.
Graphe = writing.
Photography = writing with light. Light is my guide, my subject, my medium.
Light is always moving, always changing, always in flux.
So I want to be like the light — moving, changing, observing.
This return to light and shadow is unlocking endless possibilities. People, places, surfaces — everything changes under the cast of light. And interpreting light is making me flourish as an artist.
Beyond Reality Through Abstraction
As much as I love humanity and embodied reality — sounds, smells, bare feet on the ground — photography lets me transcend the material plane.
My goal now isn’t to photograph what life is, but what it could be.
I want to photograph possibility.
I want to photograph feeling.
The photographs become a subjective reflection of my internal state.
Not fact.
Not documentation.
But emotion. Interpretation. Soul.
Thought limits you. Preconceptions limit you.
You put yourself in a box.
You have to unlock that box and create a new reality.
Breakthroughs. Spontaneity. Liberation.
I’ve had breakthrough after breakthrough on this trip.
Every new experiment pushes me somewhere new.
Photography becomes a superpower.
I wield the camera like a sword striking through chaos — creating harmony, visual order, rhythm.
The real goal is to embrace the unknown. To ride the line between order and chaos, light and shadow — and let the chips fall where they may.
Small JPEGs. Max contrast. Grit. Grain. LCD shooting. Letting go of control.
Removing the viewfinder removes the rigidity.
The inner child takes over.
Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously
Let the chips fall where they may.
Embrace the spirit of play.
Stop trying to contrive some narrative.
If you know your why, you can bear almost any how.
I’m not trying to say anything — but whatever I have to say will appear in the photographs.
I’m not a documentary photographer anymore.
I’m not describing life as it is.
I’m photographing what it could be.
Pre-Tokyo Dante vs Post-Tokyo Dante
Tokyo changed me.
There will forever be a pre-Tokyo Dante and a post-Tokyo Dante.
I’ll deeply miss this place.
I don’t hold things back. I don’t curate the feed. I share the stream. I show the becoming. I show the process. Authenticity is the whole point.
Let your freak flag fly.
You must die.
But at least you can make a photograph.
Immortalize yourself through the medium.
Let your soul live forever in your photographs.
That idea keeps me going.
Keeps me clicking.
Keeps me affirming life.
I’m imperfect, but still striving to touch the sky — to transcend the material world, to honor the divine, to honor the inner child.
Return to play.
Return to curiosity.
Return to the light.
And through following the light — I find God.
Now… Komiyama Bookstore
That’s a wrap.
That’s Tokyo.
Now let’s go to Komiyama Bookstore.
Let’s see if they’ve got that 55,000-yen Daido Moriyama one-of-50 edition in stock.
Let’s go.