The Tokyo Of Your Dreams
Neon, rain, and steam — Tokyo at night, shot so cinematically you forget these are photographs and not stills from a sci-fi film.
A stunning stylistic photographical exhibition of the Tokyo nighttime streetscape that so perfectly evokes the anime-topias and sci-futurist realms of Blade Runner and anime that you forget they’re even photos. It feels closer to cinema — where you can almost hear your feet hitting the rainy streets, the dull hum of neon lamps, the occluding steams that live in back alleys — or to the fantastical illustrations from a manga, coloring in moods and the sensations of a scene.
The book is as much a collection of shots as a story of the photographer’s, Liam Wong, creative journey and emergent career — from a homely video gamer and anime obsessant to a night-scene photographer, which, interestingly, brought him right back to his fascination with the worlds created in legendary anime movies such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell. He carries you through his own progression of curiosity and inspirations, with vignettes of his experiences that frame the context of the photography.
By doing so, his lens bridges the modernity and traditionalism that Tokyo so uniquely owns; the photography is immersive, it’s the dream of Tokyo you had when you wanted to go there. Mr. Wong’s dilations of focus and aperture create altered states of the views, but they only add mystique, becoming the fog on your glasses, the blur of peering through a clear umbrella, where the rain reflects, streaks, and blurs.
“In the hours between midnight and early morning, the city takes on a different character. That’s when it’s time for me to wander. When the trains stop and the city sleeps.”
The phosphorescence of the book is incredible, and evocative, but the technical progression would be inspiring for any young auteur in their journey — a bit of a guide on developing instinctual habits in your photography. It’s a unique photographical book I’m glad to have come across.
