A certain kind of photography is in no small part a craft of access. Get access, and all you need to do is pull focus and get the exposure right, and beautiful images will fall out onto your lap. —Craig Mod

This quote from CM’s excellent new pop-up newsletter about jazz kissas in Japan, nails a feeling I have on many shoots. Specifically, how the places & people that I photograph hugely influence the quality of my images. I always make usable pictures — that’s part of being professional. But sometimes I’m dropped into a scenario so special that magic happens wherever I point the camera…