shashasha

In “Tokyo Eye Walking,” Japanese photographer Masataka Nakano attempts to capture the "Tokyoness" of Tokyo: not its clean, aspirational, carefully designed image, but the full picture of the old and worn existing in immediate disharmony with the new and modern. Nakano locates Tokyo's unique charm in the constant juxtaposition between the city's human sensibilities and the advancing landscape of new architecture. In “Tokyo Eye Walking,” he searches for and catalogues the disappearing traces of Tokyo's local characteristics. Shooting with a smartphone camera, he was able to take photographs whenever a scene presented itself to him, with almost no delay between perception and capture.

“Some of the landscapes in this photobook have already disappeared despite being taken in the last two or three years.
It’s natural for the city to end up being clean, convenient, and modern if one considers the public safety, environmental conservation, and such that are needed for people to live there comfortably. However, whenever I take photographs of Tokyo, I feel that the landscape changes too quickly and the city’s metabolism is too intense.
While it’s wonderful to see futuristic spaces become a reality, some cities in the world understand the importance of preserving local characteristics, renovating old buildings, and moving forward while maintaining their uniqueness. So, I earnestly hope we can preserve what we should preserve, and not so readily let them disappear.”
― from Masataka Nakano’s afterword