Kenji Murakami started shooting commercially in 2013 after four years as a second photographer at a mid-size agency in Shinjuku. The agency was good at the craft but slow at everything else: clients waited two weeks for proofs, revision rounds stretched into months, and by the time the images landed, the campaign window had already closed. Kenji kept a notebook of every job that missed its moment because the delivery was late. By 2016, that notebook had 34 entries. He decided to build something different.
Kenji Murakami trained under commercial photographer Hiroshi Tanaka at Studio Axis in Shinjuku between 2009 and 2013, where he developed a discipline for precise light setups and tight post-production schedules. He spent three years as a second photographer on catalogue shoots for fashion houses in Omotesando before founding Slate Vault Path in Minami-Aoyama in 2017. The studio's 72-hour delivery standard came directly from his frustration with slow agency turnarounds. Outside the studio, Kenji runs the Tamagawa river path most mornings and insists that a good run and a good shoot share the same principle: pace yourself early, then commit at the end.