Tony Sernack, The Candle Maker (PEOPLE & PORTRAIT 2026)

The Mishima Japanese Candleshop is in the Edo period town of Hida Furukawa in the Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Theshop has been in business for over 240 years and is run by its current seventh-generation owner, Junji Mishima, who runs it with his son. He showed us how he makes over 200 candles a day, using plant based wax. This allows the candles to be used in Buddhist temples where animal based products are forbidden. I went round the back of the shop to make this portrait.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.