To See: Tokyo Street Photography

New Edition adds 12 more photos!

I was searching for the real heart of Tokyo and I went looking for it in the fleeting glance, the intersections of movement, the spark of knowing and seeking, the entirely honest moments ever flowing upon the river of life that is any street, anywhere. It was humid, it was July. But even in the rain, the energy of the street never stops. This was Tokyo, and it was special, it was amazing.

For me, street photography grew out of my natural inclination to search for moments of beauty and energy in something completely unanticipated. It is of the same soil as the free improvisations I play on piano, synthesizers, and laptop. On stage, there are no limits, no preconceptions, no ordered circumstances, and no roadmap. The music I make is complete in the moment. It happens now, it is beautiful and intense. And it will never happen again the same way, ever. It is as real, and as unpredictable and unlimited as life itself.

This volume accounts for twelve days I spent in Tokyo at the end of July in 2009. Being on the ground in vivid, humid reality was everything my decades long desire wanted and needed. After all those years, I was ready to see, and to taste and touch and feel, everything. And I grabbed my Canon 300D with the kit lens and stepped out the door.

When improvisation works, when the capture of spontaneous images succeeds, when these statements communicate something far beyond words, something that shows us all the real spirit within us, it is because I have looked with an open heart and found what is really there to see.