From the backline of London’s punk scene to the pit lane of Formula 1, Jay Hirano’s story burns with rhythm, rebellion, and reinvention. A Japanese musician turned photographer, he’s proof that creativity doesn’t fade — it just finds a new instrument.

Jay Hirano was born in the frozen north of Hokkaido in 1983, but he’s spent his life chasing heat — music, movement, and the bright burn of creativity. He left Japan in 2002, fresh out of school, and landed in London with a drum kit, a dream, and just enough English to get by. He studied percussion at a small college in Hammersmith, tightening his timing and tuning his ear, already restless for something louder, rawer, real.

By 2014, he’d found it. In Ladbroke Grove, he co-founded Smiley & The Underclass, a punk-reggae band that crashed together Dub’s deep pulse and Punk’s ragged truth. Their sound was wild — Bob Dylan with a megaphone, The Clash on fire, King Tubby in the smoke. Hirano drove it all from the backline, his drums kicking against the system as the band tackled climate collapse, inequality, and consumer greed. They toured Europe and Japan, hit Glastonbury, and in 2017 dropped Rebels Out There — a debut recorded with The Clash’s Mick Jones and reggae legend Nick Manasseh.

Then the noise stopped. The world locked down. And Jay picked up a camera.

When COVID hit, he crossed six countries under restriction, shooting the empty streets, the closed borders, and the fragile spark of human endurance that somehow survived it all. That series — Lockdown: Recovery, Rebuild, Restart — earned him a place at the Fujifilm Photo Salon in Tokyo in 2021. That same year, he published his e-book On The Edge: London’s True Appearance, peeling back the gloss to show the city as he saw it — brutal, brilliant, alive.

Since 2022, Jay Hirano’s been on the move again — this time as an official Formula 1 photographer. Between London, Tokyo, and the world’s racetracks, he captures speed, sweat, and precision with the same instinct that once drove his drums. Whether it’s a street in Shoreditch or the pit lane in Suzuka, his eye stays locked on one idea: creating images that push back, that challenge the structure, that make you look twice.

A rebel  still runs through every shot.

Jay Hirano, Formula 1 photographer, Japanese creatives in London, Smiley & The Underclass, punk reggae, Hokkaido artist, London music scene, documentary photography, Fujifilm Photo Salon Tokyo, On The Edge London’s True Appearance, Rebels Out There album, Mick Jones, Nick Manasseh, street photography, motorsport photography, creative reinvention.

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