「東京と佐島」　Juxtamorph

Modern Japan has witnessed a strong human migration from rural environments into the urban urgency with Tōkyō and its adjacent cities having become the largest metropolitan area, on this planet at least. To an extend, Japan is a blueprint for modern society – their strong support for analog currency set aside – wherein individuals are first nudged, then drawn and eventually coerced into metropolitan paradigm, often without alternatives, let alone alternative ideas.

東京と佐島 tōkyō to sajima juxtaposes 37 moments from both urban artificiality and rural decelleration each into a single double exposure on one colour film.

One day was entirely spent on 佐島 sajima (Sa Island), part of a larger archipelago in the South of 瀬戸内海 seto naikai (Seto Inland Sea). This island had zero infrastructure as far as public food supply is concerned and offered only a handful of private houses embellishing the outskirts of the deep forestation.

The second run of exposures was taken in Japan’s capital 東京 tōkyō between the famous districts of 門前仲町 monzen-nakachō, 中野 nakano, 新宿 shinjuku and in transit.

Every image thus contains both the metropolitan dynamics of anonymity, artificiality and mechanical notion as well as meanwhile bleek, lonely, untouched or derelict impressions left behind by those who strived towards the big idea, or simply escaped the scarcity.

The images appear in raw numeric order as they were shot on the film strip without any filter or conceptual selection.