I try to avoid showing my age, just because I don't think it's relevant to my work. But then I realize it is very relevant to my work, and the foundations it was built upon, so finding 25 year old work is still up on the internet is one such moment.

Imagine my happiness when I recently discovered one of my first online exhibits is still up nearly 25 years after it was posted? With the tiny file sizes and basic design and fonts that only worked in the age of dial-up Internet? Zone Zero was one of the earliest portfolio websites, created by Pedro Meyer in Mexico, and that's still going strong today. The work he showed was from a 3 year project photographing Kyoto called KYOTOLAND, a project I plan on self publishing soon - the edit shown in 2001 was from the earliest stages of the work and only a few of the images have made the final book design.

I built my first website in 1997 shortly after moving to Japan, using HTML 1, uploading to the Japanese web service GOL - I was, in the world of photojournalism, a pioneer! That site has been lost in time, I always wished I'd saved it, but my URL and email have remained the same for 28 years now. One of the great things about freelancing is you often get weeks, sometimes months, with little to no work so web design, and some self-promotion, often filled those hours. It's something I wish more editorial photographers understood - most commercial photographers understand design and the need to promote themselves beyond their little bubble but such concerns are often anathema to many editorial photographers.

To see the original Zone Zero slideshow, click here. To see my latest rendition of Kyotoland, visit here.