Why would a young photographer from Venezuela studying in Japan choose to spend valuable time recording the lives of Japanese-Brazilians in Brazil?
"It's a long story," says Irene Herrera, opening a portfolio of the 30 photographs she will be exhibiting in the documentary project "Identity: Nikkeijin in Brazil" from Dec. 19 to Dec. 28, at Nikon Salon Juna 21 in Tokyo's Nishi-Shinjuku. And the honor is all her own.
Every step of her way from Caracas (where she was born), to Florida (where she moved with her mother at age 4), to Japan and Brazil and back has been paved with a kind of puzzled determination. There's no such thing as luck, she agrees, but it's still amazing how fortune smiles.