Photographer Captures the Beautiful Patterns of Everyday Life in Asia

Mar 15, 2021

Japanese photographer Ryosuke Kosuge, who goes by the name RK online, travels across Asia and captures sweeping photos showing the gorgeous patterns that can be found in everyday life.

Kosuge is based in Tokyo and began doing photography and photo editing using only his iPhone starting in 2013 while working as a graphic designer and DJ. A few years later, he picked up a DSLR camera and started working as a freelance photographer.

The steep Heaven’s Gate stairs of Tianmen Mountain in China.

“The elder craftsman in Akihabara knew all about the mechanical parts, and reproduced them in excellent pickle of epigrams,” RK writes. “The confident smile of him is the most beautiful part in this small and dense shop.”

Kosuge’s work often depicts the mesmerizing shapes, patterns, and textures seen in ordinary locations and occupations encountered during his travels. The photos have attracted around 600,000 followers on Instagram.

“Since ancient times, Bushido has played an important role in Japanese history,” RK says. “It’s ‘The way of warriors’, even time goes by, the spirit of samurai’s faith lingers on. It influenced me, so I put my new spin on it by photography.”

“The color of Vietnam,” RK says. “It needs unique traditionally techniques of Incense-making, and families here have been making incense for the whole nation for centuries. So it’s the one of most colorful part for Vietnamese.”

“With the development of modern industry, many of the traditional crafts have died out,” RK writes. “But some villages in northern Vietnam are famous for maintaining its traditional craft of manually producing bamboo underwater traps over the past more or less 200 years. That’s not just a way of earning a living, that’s also the art with the traditional custodians of the land.”

In addition to landscapes and cityscapes, Kosuge is also a celebrity portrait photographer and an advertising photographer who collaborates with brands across a wide range of genres. His work has been widely published both in Japan and by international media outlets.