Tomohiro Ohsumi has been a photographer in Tokyo for 14 years. He has worked for Bloomberg since 2006 as a staff photographer and photo assignment editor; he covers a variety of business, politics and other Japanese news.
In Depth recently spoke with Tomohiro to discuss his diverse portfolio of work covering the complex political and socioeconomic culture in Japan.
What have you covered during your eight years with Bloomberg?
As a photographer, I cover daily news out of Japan such as major companies’ earnings, CEO interviews and press conferences and stories based on economic numbers, political events and feature-style stories. As for recent major news, I covered the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the G8 meeting, the election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan Airlines from bankruptcy to relisting and a feature inside the Fukushima nuclear power plant. I also travel often to other Asian countries. I traveled to China many times for congressional events and auto shows, Mongolia for coverage of the mining industry, Bangladesh for the shipping industry, Thailand and the Philippines for ASEAN meetings and South Korea for the G20 meeting.
Your recent photo of a coal power plant was particularly interesting. Was it a challenging shot to get?
It was my second time visiting the plant. The photo access inside the plant was limited. I was able to use a Canon 1dx and 5D Mark 3 plus 17-35mm and 28-300mm to get the shot I wanted.