shashasha

In "Phase Trans," Japanese photographer Taisuke Koyama brings together two series that metaphorically articulate the architectural nature of Tokyo in form and method. For "Revive," which forms the core of the book, Koyama took tens of thousands of photographs in areas redeveloped in the wake of the Olympic Games, erased the image files from his hard drive, and then resurrected them using data recovery software. In the process, the images are riddled with accidental and unintentional image artifacts of varying severity. With this series, Koyama mimics the continuous scrap-and-build cycle that defines the physical construction of Tokyo.

For his "Interface" series, Koyama used the LiDAR sensor of an iPhone to scan and record the surfaces of temporary structures that shape our experience of the city, such as temporary fences around construction sites, safety pylons, or Braille blocks. By projecting these images onto concrete blocks and re-photographing them, Koyama creates a visual accumulation of Tokyo's physical and social layers. Rather than being presented separately, images from both series are intertwined and mixed throughout the book.