Week 9

I love Japan and for so many years in Tokyo I've photographed the strange or the outstanding. I always tended to look for the unusual subjects, which, to a foreigner, there is an abundance of around Japan. Not since I've started this project have I seen such depth in the everyday places and lives of Tokyoites. Why couldn't I see stuff like this before? (stop questioning and just shoot!)

(Although the title of this book is Visions of Japan, it was shot entirely in Paris.)

Could I be turning more and more Japanese by the day, but remaining foreign as a photographer? I think that'd be a nice combo. Keeping one foreign eye wide open, and the other only sheepishly open , not wanting to cause or acknowledge problems. Falling back into the crowd, but being tall enough to shoot over everyone's heads. Ha. Maybe I'm not looking at Japan as that foreign anymore.

Or maybe it's just the drama and contrast of black and white? I don't know. But even these trees near our apartment seem to stand out to me more recently and that is exactly what I was hoping to see come out in my images 9 weeks ago.




I hate to post two bicycle shots within two weeks, but this is typically how you see police in Japan...biking around and scratching their heads.
All photos are the property of Tyler Ensrude at
www.tylerensrude.com