Kuni Takanami grew up in the Tokyo’s ghetto district Itabashi, a world away from surfing.

Developing a passion for surfing after graduating Junior High School, circumstances led him on an international search for new waves, friends, landscapes and experiences. Picking up photography as a hobby, his skills developed as he travelled the globe with camera in hand. Learning from mistakes made in his youth and from those new experiences and cultures he has embraced through travel, Kuni has evolved into a philosophising and excitingly original photographer.

Now a devoted father to sons Ryder and Hunter, Kuni balances his time shooting surf, travel, fashion and lifestyle photography and traveling the world with his Australian wife, who is a writer for their independent media Surfer’s Eyes.