Shinjuku After Dark

There is something colorful and electrifying about Shinjuku that one doesn’t always find in other cities – or even other parts of Tokyo. During the day, it masquerades as a prime shopping area and business hub in the heart of Japan’s capital, but even then a strange energy lingers in the background. Come nightfall, this energy explodes as Shinjuku shrugs off any remnants of its daytime formality and properness, and launches itself into a sort of free-for-all debauchery.

Shinjuku After Dark captures random scenes around one of Tokyo’s most exciting wards, just as it winds down from one of those momentous nights. Inspired by Daido Moriyama (1938~) and his high contrast, black-and-white masterpieces taken from the same area, I sought to adopt and experience the spontaneity of Moriyama’s approach to photography. The freedom from a lack of photographic process, as it turned out, was strangely gratifying.