BEACHWOOD – “It’s Seikatsu Koba’s intiative,” said Gina Glimmer, before revealing that her friend with the very Japanese name in fact isn’t Japanese at all – which goes to show how much it’s possible to let oneself be fascinated by the Land of the Rising Sun.

“We both had the same idea, independently of each other, to do photo exhibition on Japan. For various reasons, we never got to it before she brought up the idea to do it together as a token of our friendship,” said Glimmer.

It was the Gion sim that really got her triggered. “At the same time, I also met someone who had started making and selling Japanese clothes. Modern ones, but with a touch of tradition. So my first plan was to combine a photo exhibition with her clothes, but unfortunately she’s had to leave SL for a while,” said Glimmer.

Glimmer herself had to leave SL for a bit. When she came back, the experienced photographer was about to quit photography.

“After having been away for so long, I couldn’t find my way back to photography again, especially nudes or avatars in general. Seikatsu picked the right moment for us to start on this project,” said Glimmer, revealing it was the spark she needed to get back into the game.

The duo has worked partly together, partly independently while taking their pictures for the exhibition. Aside from Gion, they’ve also photographed the sims Ninja Iga and Kyoto Bakumatsu, amongst others. “We were very lucky to get some spontaneous help from people we met during our ‘sim scouting’,” Glimmer laughed. She then produced a beautiful picture of a geisha that had showed them round on the sim where she lived.

Glimmer has never had the opportunity to visit Japan in RL, “but I’m fascinated by what I see as a high tech modern society with a very strong sense of tradition. I also like the minimalism in their art.”

She wants to continue her exploration of the theme. “I hope to make something with my Japanese, clothes making friend when she comes back. Then, hopefully, I will try to do something on clothes, and maybe furniture as well,” said Glimmer.

The exhibition will be shown in two galleries. On Saturday, it opens in Koba’s gallery in Beachwood at 1 p.m. SLT, while on Sunday, it opens in Glimmer’s gallery at Ex.It.