Typhoon Jebi may well have been on its way, but this man simply wasn’t going to miss Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine.
Photography
Japanese concrete curves
Japan’s love of concrete knows no bounds, but now and again the results can be really quite beautiful.
Photo series: Britain, 2018
Last summer, I returned to the UK for the first time in four years — the longest I’ve ever gone without a visit since arriving in Japan just over two decades ago. A period of time that in different ways was traumatic for both me, and the country of my birth. Changes and experiences that made the photographs I took while visiting seem somehow poignant, or at the very least slightly symbolic. The resultant series, along with more of an explanation, can be seen here.
This year, however, things were slightly different. Going back after only a year away made the trip seem much less significant, plus the impact of what I’d been through, and the disappointment surrounding the Brexit vote, were dampened somewhat by the simple passage of time. And yet this summer’s photographic output isn’t all that different from last year. Partly, no doubt, due to the ongoing nature of both sets of events, but it’s probably more to do with the fact that I tend to shoot similar things anyway: people, decay and those unexpected scenes that make being out with a camera so rewarding.
Below then are the photos. Images from a place I used to call home. A country that is altogether familiar, and yet at the same time nowhere near as familiar as it was once.
A Tokyo transvestite drunk and asleep on the street
Seeing people drunk and asleep on the street isn’t all that unusual in Tokyo. In fact, it’s so relatively common that I’ve managed to build up a fair sized series of both men and women publicly sleeping off a very big night out.
Passed out transvestites, on the other hand, are a much rarer breed. So rare in fact that up until recently I’d only ever seen one — this one to be exact.
Now, however, that number has doubled to two.
Tokyo urban art expressions
The grinning and gurning faces of a Tokyo alleyway.
