Leigh Sloggett is a Melbourne based Netsuke artist. He has been carving Netsuke since 1992.
Trained in Japan his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including the British Museum, Tokyo National Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum (see below), and can be found in many important private collections.
Netsuke are toggles designed to suspend objects such as small bags and inro (lacquer boxes) from the obi (sash), which is worn with the kimono. They evolved in Japan over three hundred years ago, and have changed greatly over time. These days Netsuke are rarely used functionally, however their beauty and uniqueness is still largely attributed to the functional constraints. Therefore, contemporary Netsuke artists continue to take this into consideration when approaching each design.
I was engaged to photograph his large portfolio for the production of his website. This involved several shooting sessions and a great deal of post production. Shooting these small but very detailed objects was a great creative challenge.
Most were shot on the Nikon D850 with the 85mm PCE tilt shift lens. All manipulation done in ACR and Photoshop.