Hello Phoebe

‘The last time I was in Tokyo I bought a Hello Kitty Fujifilm Instax mini camera at the Wonder Photo Shop in Harajuku. One pack of Hello Kitty film was included. And stickers. At Haneda Airport waiting to board our flight home to London, I spent all my remaining Yen buying up as much extra Hello Kitty film as I could, in a souvenir shop near the departure gate. I exchanged a big bag of coins for 10 packs of film and a wasabi Kit Kat… I met Phoebe in January 2022. She contacted me on Instagram. She was seventeen. A singer/songwriter and school kid from the suburbs of South London. We spent 9 months taking pictures before she headed off to university… The other day we ran out of Hello Kitty film – impossible to get in London – so we bought a few packs of Mermaid Tail because it sounded kind of cool and we wanted to finish our zine.’ – Valerie Phillips.