Japanese Photographer Creates Adorably Hilarious Photos of His Daughter

Photography Tips

It’s a known fact that parents love to take (and share) photos of their children. Most people smile politely as the proud parent flips through photo after photo of their kid eating, sleeping, crying, playing, and celebrating the latest birthday; however, the viewer is usually disenchanted with the photo barrage about 5 pictures in. Welcome to the scene Toyokazu Nagano, a creative photographer and proud father of two daughters.

Nagano received a used DSLR camera from a friend in 2008–shortly after the birth of his second daughter, Kanna–and used it to document the daily lives of his two girls. In an interview with “The Japan Times,” Nagano said in 2010, he purchased a medium-format camera–a Pentax 67–but found it hard to capture the special moments due to the manual settings of the camera. While such a setback would frustrate many photographers, Nagano used this shortcoming to his advantage:

“Then it occurred to me, ‘If I can’t nail the moment, I could just take their picture when they’re not moving!’ This overly positive outlook changed my course as the official family photographer in a big way. Instead of pictures where I captured a wondrous moment or lovely daily-life scene, shots with creative elements that make you burst out laughing in spite of their triviality, became my, and our children’s, (family photo) standard.”

His collection of creative pictures, entitled “My Daughter Kanna,” is truly a day-brightener that will put a smile on your face:

Viewers laughed, grinned, and cooed “awww” as these photos spread across the internet, but some people were perplexed by the empty road in the background.

Nagano said he wanted people to focus on the hilarity of the scene, rather than focus on what was behind his subject.

“I didn’t want the background to have too much meaning, so I take them on a totally nondescript farm road that runs in front of our house.”

His only criterion when creating these pictures with his daughter is determining whether or not it is funny.

“I believe laughter has a depth and universality that transcends generations. And laughter has the effect of livening things up instantaneously. It also has the power to make people happy.”