Tape, Rope, and Hope
Tokyo is holding on to the past and the future in more ways than one.
A few of my pals and I head out for photowalks on Saturday mornings. Our days aren’t filled with those cliché images or people in the intersection making weird faces as they walk by. Nope. We mostly find simple, behind-the-scenes shots that tell the viewer, “this is everyday Tokyo”; we hit up residential areas.
I’ve always had an obsession with finding the finer bits of a scene, and in Tokyo there’s a ton of those bits. It started out as finding and shooting general decay, but then I noticed how many bars, restaurants, and retailers have whole heartedly tried to keep their signs and things held together with rope or tape. And let me tell ya, after a while, it looks like shit. Beautiful shit.
“The Monolith”, as I call it, is the epitome of all this tape stuff. At a point, it really serves very little purpose, IMO.
Feast on some color images.
Bear in mind, I know many signs are expensive to replace. There’s a hardship that comes with having to cough up tens of thousands of Yen to get replacements in front of the shops & such.
Growing up, I always heard the term, “curb appeal”. It basically means that a home or place looks good from the street or from afar. I only hope that more shops in Japan can have just a bit more of that appeal. Wait. Maybe this IS the appeal. IDK.
Now, I’m basically obsessed with finding these tapey textures. There’s an artistic element in them, or so I tell myself, which can tell different Tokyo stories. No neon. No Blade Runner. No cliché images or people in the intersection making weird faces as they walk by, just tape, rope, and hope.
— Jason Garcia
So rad. Love these photos, they really do tell a story of Tokyo, it’s exactly this kind of stuff that gives a vibe and character to a hood.
Clever!