Director/photographer Zen Sekizawa has signed with WoodShop, the production house headed by founder/executive producer Sam Swisher and founder/ECD/director Trevor Shepard. The company roster also includes creative directors/directors Michelle Pak and Peter Cote.
After freelancing with the WoodShop team continuously over the past 10 years, Sekizawa decided to formally sign with the company. “Since the beginning of our work together, there has always been a natural and organic partnership,” explained Sekizawa. “There aren’t many studios where you make great things at this high level and still be friends at the end of it.”
Sekizawa has been working as a photographer, director and artist for over two decades in her hometown of Los Angeles. She is second-generation Angeleno and fourth- generation, Japanese-American.
Since earning her BFA in Photography from Art Center College of Design, she had built an extensive roster of commercial clients including Jaguar, KFC, Nike, Apple, IBM, Sonic, Reynolds Wrap, Lexus, Modelo, Vogue, Vans, SONOS and The New Yorker.
Recent projects for Sekizawa include a launch for Miss Grass, and an Instagram-inspired social media campaign for Sonos, exploring how artists are living, working, and listening at home through a series called “Still Lives.” Sekizawa collaborated in the fall with Playboy on a Holiday Gift Guide. Currently she is working on projects for Vans, The New Yorker and Modelo. Sekizawa is continuously shooting for dual Michelin-starred restaurant n/naka and also creates custom objects and furniture pieces in her arts based collaboration project MANO YA.
“Zen has an incredibly unique perspective, which she brings to every collaboration,” noted WoodShop’s Shepard. “Zen’s use of color, texture and composition, which she brings to motion is amazing. She is able to portray a product to align with how it makes you feel. Zen can do this visually.”
