Julie Watai is not just a photographer. She is an artist, DJ, music producer and model whose aesthetics could be described as "hi-tech kawaii".

She mashes up Shibuya and Akihabara culture with her original world-view and creates what she calls "techno scape photos".

Her two photo books, SAMURAI GIRLS, HARDWARE GIRLS and her mook (magazine-book) HARDWARE GIRLS MAGAZINE showcase her talent as a photographer, electrical engineer and model.

Kawaii culture and Nerdism are her main influences. Indentifying herself as an "Otaku", a term that is generally negative, she aims to showcase the positive aspects of geek culture through her art.

I don’t care that I’m not mainstream as long as I’m creating something.

Julie often resorts to applying glitches and other distortions to her pictures during post-production. Although her photos are mostly self-protraits, she has also collaborated with Yun*chi, Hinami-chan and the likes.

She is also active on YouTube. Her most viewed video to date shows Julie creating unusual sounds by "bending the circuit" of a Furby.

Vice network "The Creator’s Project" recently uploaded a video documentation on Julie:

You can follow Julie Watai on her official website, Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel if you’re interested.

What do you think about her art? Is it contemporary? Does she have what it takes to change the world’s opinion on geek culture? Head over to the comment section and tell us what you think!

(via Julie’s official website)