Photographs from a small group of islands
Shinjuku has been a happy hunting ground over the years, with some of my most complete photo series shot on the city’s wonderfully unpredictable streets — the recently posted alleyway set being the latest. Images that took a decade to put together.
It is though a part of the capital that keeps on giving, and wandering the area for just a few hours last week, I was reminded once again why I keep returning.
Finding and photographing new areas is always rewarding, but at the same time, so is returning again and again to previously visited locations. The latter being something I do a lot of, particularly in the older parts of Tokyo. A practice that allows me to gradually document the changes those neighbourhoods are going through. Also, going back to a familiar place is still a unique experience, as even if the urban scenery is the same, the people aren’t. A factor that for me at least makes each and every visit feel worthwhile.
All of which brings me to the series shown here. A set of images from a small warren of interconnected Shinjuku alleyways that I’ve been photographing for a decade. And on a wander there last week, I took the opening photo. A shot I’ve long been hoping for, and the moment I pressed the shutter, it felt like the collection was complete. Or at least as complete as such a series can be. So for now at least, this is what I have. A little bit of Shinjuku from 2016 to 2026.
Photo booths aren’t uncommon in Tokyo. Quite the opposite really, with many found in and around the city’s numerous train stations. Plenty of supermarkets have them too. An incredibly regular sight then that in many ways makes them invisible. Something you generally don’t notice unless you actually need one.
However, several weeks ago I took the first picture in this set, which piqued my interest and set me on a mission of sorts to get more, culminating in this little series. Something a bit different form my usual work, and to end the collection, there’s a similarly unusual photo of me. A portrait produced back in 2021.
Before the heat and humidity really start to pick up next month, here is a series of late spring street portraits. Some taken on my Tokyo Photowalk Tours, with others shot on solo outings, but all of them, I hope, provide little vignettes of daily life in the Japanese capital.
There are so many photographs on these pages of old Tokyo businesses and their owners that no longer exist. Death, redevelopment and quite often both combining to change how many parts of the capital now look and feel.
That said, there is thankfully still a lot of history left to see and enjoy, so for something of a change from the more regular scenes of before and after, here are some survivors, all of which were shot very recently.
First is a traditional shoe shop that has been open for a century. It’s now in the hands of its 3rd generation owner, with the 4th already working there and preparing to take over.
Then there’s a similarly aged liquor store run by an 85-year-old who’s also the 3rd generation proprietor. For added interest, the building it’s housed in is even older. Quite something for a wooden structure, particularly so in a city that was heavily firebombed and is prone to both earthquakes and typhoons.
Lastly is a neighbourhood fishmonger that I first photographed in 2020, so I’ve included that shot as well — a memory that made seeing the place still operational even nicer.
The shop was founded by the current owner’s father in 1935. Sadly he died young, so his even younger son took over. That was in 1953, and now, 73 years later, that once fresh-faced youngster is still working there at the ripe old age of 89.
