Leslie Kee was 13 when he received his first camera: a Minolta X-700, a birthday gift from his mother. It was the first and final gift she gave him. Three and a half months later, she passed away from cancer; he never had a chance to take a picture with her.
“That remains my biggest regret in life,” says Kee. He initially hesitated to photograph his family, he explains, because he was trying to master the camera’s self-timer function first. Now he wishes he had just shot something, no matter how imperfect the result. “An imperfect portrait would have been fine, but I didn’t even try, and before I knew it, she was gone. It made me realize life is too short, there’s no use waiting until tomorrow. If you have a dream, don’t hesitate to capture it.”
This philosophy has come to shape Kee’s life and his artistic output. Now 54, he’s renowned worldwide as a photographer, known for his work in fashion, art and celebrity portraiture. But Tokyo will always hold a special place in his heart. Since moving to Japan more than three decades ago, he has established himself as an integral part of the city’s art and fashion scenes; in many ways, his (astonishingly extensive) body of work functions as a catalog of a generation of artists, creatives and tastemakers.
A Life-Changing Gift
Gregarious and disarming, Kee is adept at recognizing when someone has something special — and, perhaps more importantly, at getting them to open up to him so that he can capture that something special on film. His photos have a vibrant, cinematic quality, balancing high-gloss style with a rawness that lets his subjects’ personalities and emotions shine through.
However, he wasn’t always so confident. Born in Singapore to a Japanese father he never met and a Singaporean mother who worked night and day to provide for Kee and his sister, he was, by his own account, a taciturn child who had few friends at school. His family lived in a small, one-room apartment in the residential area of Tiong Bahru, and he was mostly raised by his grandmother and aunt, as his mother was usually away.
His family was incredibly loving, he says, but they suffered through their fair share of hardships, and money was tight. He always dreaded going back to school after the summer holidays. “The teacher would ask us to show pictures of the time we spent with our families, and I had nothing,” recalls Kee. “I was envious of the other children, and that’s why, when my mom asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said a camera. Before then, I’d never requested anything because we were so poor. That present changed my life.”
Finding Purpose
After Kee’s mother passed away, it fell on him to help support the family. He got a job at a Japanese cassette tape factory, working four hours every day after school and eight hours on weekends to help with living expenses. This, too, ended up being a life-altering experience: It was his first real exposure to Japanese culture. He was amazed by how systematic everything was and how dedicated the workers were. He was also drawn to what he describes as the elegance and kindness of the Japanese women at the factory.
He felt he’d discovered a hidden “wonderland.” His fellow workers presented him with onigiri, sushi and sukiyaki, while also introducing him to songs by J-pop idols like Yu Hayami, Kyoko Koizumi and Akina Nakamori. He then started to listen to Japanese artists who wrote their own music, like Tatsuro Yamashita and groups like Southern All Stars.
The musician who had the biggest impact on him, though, was Yumi Matsutoya, also known as Yuming. “The first time I heard her, I thought she sounded very stylish,” Kee recalls. “While the music had a futuristic feel to it, you could hear a humility in her voice. It touched me deeply. Growing up, my life felt empty at times, but listening to her gave me a purpose. I started saving money because I knew I had to go to Tokyo to see her in concert.”
Pursuing a Dream
Before Kee eventually settled in Tokyo, he set out on a journey that left a lasting imprint on him. After completing two years of mandatory military service in Singapore, he packed a backpack and traveled for 18 months around Asia. The experience reshaped his worldview, exposing him to a level of poverty he couldn’t have imagined, even as someone who grew up with little.
It also deepened his understanding of photography’s power. He saw how a single image could hold immense meaning, and how being captured on film could make someone really feel seen. “A photograph I took of a young boy in Delhi made me think it could be a worthwhile career,” he remembers. “I got that picture developed a few days later and, miraculously, I managed to find the boy again and gave him the printed photo. To see the appreciation in his face was one of the greatest moments in my life.”
Kee was clear about the profession he wished to pursue when he arrived in Japan. The problem was his academic background. Colleges here were reluctant to take him on since he’d never graduated from high school. Undeterred, he continued with his Japanese language studies while working various part-time jobs. An essay he wrote about his love of photography and a recommendation letter from his Japanese teacher eventually earned Kee a place at Tokyo Visual Arts vocational school.
After graduating with a diploma in photography, he spent a year looking for work in Japan as a studio assistant, but he was rebuffed wherever he went. Fortunately, magazines in other Asian countries saw his potential and offered him work — most notably City Magazine in Hong Kong and, later, Vogue Taiwan. This naturally made publications in Japan sit up and take notice. Offers soon came rolling in, including the photo shoot he wanted most of all.
Capturing Icons
“Yuming was the main reason I came to Japan, so to have the chance to photograph her was beyond my wildest dreams,” says Kee. “It was a six-page spread for Voce magazine ahead of her 2001 album, Acacia. This gracious woman, whom I’d idolized since my teens, was as impressive a human as she was a singer. I then had the opportunity to shoot her album covers, promotional posters and so on. Of course, I’ve photographed bigger names, but personally speaking, nothing can compare to Yuming.”
Those “bigger names” he refers to include music megastars like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams and Madonna, in addition to legendary figures in sport and film, such as Ichiro Suzuki and Brad Pitt. Kee has also forged close relations with several acclaimed fashion designers, most notably Yohji Yamamoto and the late Karl Lagerfeld. Thanks to his ability to capture his subjects’ distinct qualities and emotions, he’s become one of the most sought-after photographers in the industry.
Portraits, as Kee notes, are more than just images, and the unique interchange between subject and photographer is impossible to replicate. “I believe in the power of photography,” he says. “An AI image might look just as good or even better, but it’s soulless. People want a picture to tell a story. That’s what we can do as photographers. It’s why I believe we won’t be conquered by AI.”
The Power of Photography
One of the most striking things about Kee is his tenacity. When he wants to make something happen artistically, it happens. In 2004, he launched his own magazine series called Super, inspired by the editions of the French magazine Egoiste that showcased photos by his hero Richard Avedon. Each issue focuses on a single theme or figure, with Kee’s striking portraits creating an overwhelming visual narrative, and often features dozens — sometimes hundreds — of pages dedicated to one subject.
Often, he channels that tenacity toward a higher cause. His first charity photo book, Super Stars, which features portraits of 300 Asian celebrities, was released in 2006, with all profits donated to victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. His follow-up, Love & Hope, created in collaboration with Tiffany & Co., directed its proceeds toward rebuilding areas devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
In 2016, he began producing projects highlighting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating photo and video works that continue to raise awareness for the initiative in Japan and abroad. That same year, he also began a collaboration with NHK on “2020 Leslie Kee Portrait Message,” a portrait project leading up to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games that highlighted athletes, artists and cultural figures.
Last year, as part of Tokyo Pride’s 30th anniversary celebrations, he held an exhibition called “Super LVMH ~ Art de Vivre ~,” featuring photographs and messages from 30 LVMH executives and 30 global celebrities who support the LGBTQ+ community. As a gay man, raising awareness about minority issues is particularly important to Kee. “In the early 2000s, I lived in New York, where people are much more open about their sexuality,” he says. He wishes Japanese society allowed for the same kind of open expressivity. “Here, individuals are often reluctant to come out, and as a result, there’s sometimes a lack of understanding when it comes to LGBTQ+ individuals.”
In 2015, to help remedy this, he launched a project called “Out in Japan” — a visual catalogue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Japan, published online alongside uplifting interviews about how they came to recognize, accept and eventually celebrate their sexuality. “Through this project, I want to show we are all equal. LGBTQ+ people contribute significantly to society as teachers, doctors, civil servants and so on, and should be proud of who they are.”
Kee feels progress is slowly being made here when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, but would like to use his influence to move things along more quickly. “The year we started ‘Out in Japan,’ Shibuya and Setagaya announced they were issuing same-sex partnership certificates. Now, every ward in Tokyo and most prefectures issue them,” he says. “It’s encouraging, but there’s still a way to go before same-sex marriages are legalized here. That’s why I need to use my platform to push for change.”
For Kee, photography has never just been about style or celebrity — it’s about connection. Each portrait is a chance to draw out something genuine from the person in front of the lens and, by doing so, to push for a future that’s more open, accepting and beautiful. In the end, what drives him is the same conviction he felt as a boy with his first camera: that a single image can hold a story worth telling, and that those stories deserve to be seen.
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