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February 5, 2009

American Apparel Rips Yasumasa Yonehara’s Photography Style

Yasumasa Yonehara

Dynamic Japanese photographer Yasumasa Yonehara of KIKSTYO fame claims in an interview with MEKAS, that American Apparel ripped his distinctive seductive, sultry and raw photography style:

They ripped me off. They made those ads after looking at my photos. If you ask around, you’ll realize this is true.

I sold my books and products at the 2002 or 2003 MAGIC exhibition (in Las Vegas). Dov [Charney, CEO of American Apparel] came over and bought everything. After that he started to make stuff exactly like my photos, down to the composition and colors. And that’s when American Apparel started to really take off…

There is something kind of painful about it. Dov very skillfully took my methodology and made it work within a commercial context.

At first, Dov was like, “Sorry about this!” and I finally was like, whatever.

And it doesn’t stop there. Apparently Dov is still at it:

But when I try to do something now, it looks similar, which is too bad. I even ask myself sometimes, doesn’t this look a little too American Apparel? Maybe American Apparel is out of ideas. So they have to just keep ripping me off over and over.

No worries Yone — Dov’s wannabe models could never match the girls you photograph, nor does his photos come remotely close to the ones shot with your mad cheki camera skills.

Photos by Yasumasa Yonehara (Yone)
Yasumasa Yonehara
Yasumasa Yonehara

Photos by Dov Charney and American Apparel
Yasumasa Yonehara
Yasumasa Yonehara

(Yasumasa Yonehara photo courtesy MEKAS)

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  • razi

    Yone is the man! Those AA models look scary. :X

  • http://www.erapo.szm.sk daniel

    Yes, Yone is great.
    Terry, can you tell where are these photos by Yone from? especially the second one, with head upside down.

  • http://www.kineda.com Terry Ng

    You can view Yone’s work here: http://cexwork.com/photo.html

  • crtzmo

    speaking of rip-offs, too bad you guys edited and cropped Sean Woods’ excellent photo of YONE. The original, of course, is much better.

  • http://www.kineda.com Terry Ng

    The photo is taken from the MEKAS interview which is linked above in the first paragraph of this post and falls within fair use.

  • crtzmo

    Right you are.

    Photographer for MEKAS is Sean Wood, and think his version rocks.. But, to each his own.

  • http://www.kineda.com Terry Ng

    Did I ever say it didn’t rock? All of Sean’s photography rocks! It just needed to be cropped to fit. Jeez.

  • http://www.kineda.com/profile/jules jules

    Yone’s photography is great, but hot Japanese girls helps alot. You could probably shoot them with $5 disposal cameras and they’d still be hot as f*ck!

    Try using this same style with ugly chicks and you get American Apparel! LOL.

  • crtzmo

    Well, Yone DOES shoot them with (nearly) disposable cameras… Perhaps Dov bought this!

    http://shop.lomography.com/cheki/

    No, Terry, you did not say his photos don’t rock. Posting a link to Sean’s portfolio totally makes up for the hatchet-job — well done, sir.

  • heartofjosh

    I don’t know why Yone thinks Dov stole his work. Lomography was around long before he started doing it and he’s far from being the only one to use that style. There’s a massive cult following at http://www.lomography.com/

  • Al

    When the hell did Yone think that the whole seductive style was his idea? He is a talented photographer but c’mon. Just about every adult male photographer working with models got the same style. By looking at the two sets I already see similarities as well as differences. He should think of the “ripoff” as a compliment.

    That aside, I like the sixth picture in Yone’s set and the third picture in Dov’s.

  • AllaN

    Im a bit surprised that Yone would claim that AA is stealing his style. The way I see it, Yone’s photos are in a different league, and the fact that he would compare his own photos to that of AA’s is just unjust. Maybe for Yone, it’s a matter of grabbing some attention. Yone also hasn’t made it to the level where he get’s a style/effect named after him, unlike DAVE HILL..

  • shakir

    Yasumasa Yonehara photo’s are so much better, that the AA shots look like they were taken on a phone.

    IMHO -there is a distinct lack of depth the AA shots because of sub-par lighting / exposure settings (all of the AA ones are front lite with nearly no shadows). lets not even get into the fact that the AA shots do a terrible job of selling the clothes

  • http://cassettewalkmans.com/wordpress/?p=258 cw : blog » Blog Archive » YASUMASA YONEHARA VS AMERICAN APPAREL

    [...] this interview via kineda, Yasumasa from kikstyo claims AA took his raw photography style in 2003 and has gained much of [...]

  • http://superduperfantastic.net suki

    AA stole his style? Really? Come on. There are so many photographers out there, taking those kinds of shots of women for years.

  • http://mskari.org/?p=316 Daily Summary 2009-02-09 – mskari.org

    [...] American Apparel Rips Yasumasa Yonehara’s Photography Style » Kineda[写真] [...]

  • http://blog.kidplastik.com/?p=120 KIDPLASTIK » American Apparel Rips Yasumasa Yonehara’s Photography Style?

    [...] American Apparel Rips Yasumasa Yonehara’s Photography Style? This entry was written by admin and posted on February 12, 2009 at 5:59 am and filed under Uncategorized, photos. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. [...]

  • http://possouniverse.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/posso-puma-black-label-phoenix-official-after-party/ POSSO + PUMA BLACK LABEL + PHOENIX OFFICIAL AFTER PARTY « POSSO UNIVERSE

    [...] grandmother and just being ever brilliant and inspiring… Take introduced us to photographer Yone and got picture taken… Hung out with the crew and then as we were about to leave…ended [...]

  • sexyErica187

    it awesome :P hi guys :)

  • http://expresslayout.com/art/?p=7041 Flüd Wärning | The Express Art Blog

    [...] Photography junkies are sure to recognize Yonehara’s name, but for those of you unfamiliar with the man and his work, just look at an American Apparel advertisement – each is a watered-down version of his photographic brilliance featuring far less-desirable models wearing shitty clothes. Want proof? [...]

  • http://twitter.com/vDJshigga VDJ Shigga

    Yone’s is so much better

  • http://twitter.com/vDJshigga VDJ Shigga

    Yone’s is so much better

  • http://www.kineda.com/behind-the-scenes-photoshoot-with-yonehara-yasumasa/ Behind the Scenes Photoshoot with Yonehara Yasumasa » Kineda

    [...] takes us behinds the scenes of a photoshoot from Japanese erotic photographer Yonehara “Yone” Yasumasa. Yone is now in his 50s now and still shows no sign of slowing down his love of capturing beautiful [...]

  • http://blog.magnation.com/2011/01/20/my-top-5-mags-acclaim/ My Top 5 Mags: Acclaim

    [...] issue on our shelves currently features a cover shot by Japanese photographer Yasumasa Yonehara (he’s the guy that all those American Apparel ads rip-off), articles on sneakers, the emergence of motorcycle culture, hip-hop art weirdo Rammellzee (R.I.P!) [...]

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    Being grateful can bring us a better and more
    beautiful life.

  • http://www.monsters-store.com stephen

    He who seize the right moment, is the right man.

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