They shoot Tokyo

The ambitious TOKYO-GA project unites more than 100 photographers in a quest to capture Japan’s capital. Here is a selection from their epic urban adventure…

Open your eyes to TOKYO-GA, an art project that features 100 photographers from both Japan and abroad. Its goal is to uncover new meanings and values –and to inspire progress through contemplating the city of Tokyo and the many people who come into contact with it. Since ancient times, Japan has absorbed many cultures, developing the mélange into a unique culture all of its own. Tokyo, the centre of Japan, is defined by diversity a kaleidoscope of cultures and influences.

For the first issue of Time Out Tokyo magazine, a collaboration with TOKYO-GA seemed an obvious choice. These pictures were selected from the project’s archives to convey a full sense of the city –from the originality of Tokyo captured in simple shots of the everyday things that seem to pass us by (such as the charming details and orderly harmony by photographers César Ordóñez and Navid Navid Baraty) to still-living reminders of Tokyo’s history (like the Shintoism and sumo wrestling by Tatsuya Hirabayashi and Daisuke Kamimura). The images’ variety of angles and the diversity of subjects encourage you to feel the coexistence of chaos and stillness that is so characteristic of the Japanese capital.

As Naoko Ohta, commissioner of TOKYO-GA, elegantly puts it: ‘Tokyo is a city living on the cutting edge of the future. The charms of such a place can be truly expressed only through a medium as direct and moving as photography.’

Photographers on these pages: 1. César Ordóñez, 2. Daido Moriyama, 3. Masami Yamamoto, 4. Christopher Morris, 5. Michael Feather, 6. César Ordóñez, 7. Gentaro Ishizuka, 8. Naobumi Chiba, 9. Satoshi Asakawa, 10. Sébastien Lebegue, 11. Mitsugu Ohnishi

TOKYO-GA is an extensive art project that unites 100 Japanese and international photographers and their individual perception of Tokyo’s grand picture. The purpose of this project is to reflect upon future actions and movements while considering what we have, who we are and what we discover in the process. www.tokyo-ga.org

Photographers on these pages: 12. Rei Kishitsu, 13. Navid Baraty, 14. Noriko Yabu, 15. Naoki Honjo, 16. Michael Feather, 17. Michael Wolf, 18. Daisaku Oozu, 19. Daisuke Kamimura, 20. Taishi Hirokawa, 21. Stéphanie Fraisse, 22. Tomoki Hirokawa, 23. Masayoshi Sukita, 24. Thomas Prior, 25. Yukinori Tokoro, 26. Tatsuya Hirabayashi