Artist Profile: Sawa (get-her)

Sawa of Get-Her is a friend and fellow artist based out of Downtown LA. She’s multi talented and can often be found behind both still cameras and the kind used on movie sets. Aside from her busy life as a photographer she’s often involved in many different projects including printing and pasting her own propaganda on the much adorned walls of the city. Earlier in the year I stopped in LA after working on an intense project in Las Vegas for the SuicideGirls (along with Sawa who was behind one of the movie cameras on the project). We decided that since I was in town for a couple of days we should make the most of our rare time together and work on a set of photos that shows this ninja-like secret life of the night.

I met Sawa for the first time in 2005 on another movie project for the SuicideGirls in Italy. Straight away I knew she would be one of the people that would definitely be in my life one way or another for a long time to come. Over the four years in the interim we kept in touch here and there and I admired from afar the projects she worked on (she’s also been the front woman of a fantastic and successful metal band). In 2008 we were able to collaborate on a couple of photography projects and I was honoured to be her photo editor. Then 2009 finally brought us back together in person and we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot together again for the first time in 4 years.

It’s really amazing the opportunities life brings our way sometimes. When I visited LA in 2005 I vowed to never go back, but looking back I realise I wasn’t in the right place in my life to appreciate the culture and art that LA has to offer. Not to mention that having friends in a vast and endless city like LA really makes such a difference. Some cities you can just stumble into and find your place, but as every one knows the City of Angels is a mass tangled web that is so very easy to drown in.

Since I moved to Canada and could freely travel again I’ve found myself in LA twice in a year and I am all set to go again for the Haute Macabre show in two weeks time. If you’d told my 2005 self that I’d be visiting the city that much and enjoying it every time I’d have taken you for an idiot. With a better understanding of how the city works and with a good handful of very close friends in the city it’s a very different place. In February when we took these photos Sawa told me of the big projects she had coming her way and the rich Downtown art community that she was heavily involved with. LA really has been in my mind ever since and I’ve taken a keen interest in the scene there, when I came around to working on these photos for Sawa this week I was reminded of the incredible fun we had that night and hopefully what marks a great future for Sawa and get-her.la

I can’t wait to see her in a couple of weeks and perhaps even work together again!