Hikari Creative was the brainchild of Ako Salemi, who first asked Q. Sakamaki to collaborate with him. Together, they agreed that the new collective would use Instagram to explore a new style of photography. A photography that would utilize a strong artistic sensibility and move beyond traditional photojournalism to blend fine art and photo-documentary traditions. Before the public launch of the yet-to-be-named collective, Marina Sersale and Eric Mencher were added. None of the four original members had ever met, but knew of and had a high respect for each other's work. Adriana Zehbrauskas became the collective's fifth member earlier this year.

​Why the name Hikari Creative? Hikari means light in Japanese but is also a metaphor for Hope. Our logo summarizes it best: “We are brought together by photography to affirm art as essential to our lives”. That has been our guiding principle since our Instagram launch in November, 2014.