Since 2002, Barcelona native, photographer Xavier Comas has been exploring Asia through his camera's lenses.
I discovered his recent project Tokyo, Up Down via a French magazine and asked him if I could share some of it for our first 'Tokyo Thursdays' of 2011.
Here's Xavier thinking behind the project:
"Elevators enabled the development of many-storied buildings and fundamentally altered urban landscapes and social space. Tokyo epitomizes the densely populated megalopolis, where elevators are a showcase for the basic paradox of personal alienation in urban living: the inescapable physical proximity countered by emotional distance. The Tokyo Up, Down project comprises a series of black & white photographs taken inside and outside of elevators in Tokyo. The project explores vertical transportation in the intimacy of the elevator cabin, a moment of silence suspended in space and time, which nonetheless yields a rich array of subtle interactions between strangers on the shortest ever journey. Tokyo Up, Down is a visual essay that tries to show the elevator space as a transit hub that connects the surface of the megalopolis with the layers underneath."
Of the 32 tryptichs that compose Tokyo Up, Down I chose two as illustrations each followed by Xavier's notes on where they were taken.
#24: These images were taken in Nishi Shinjuku, the business district: skyscrapers, large high speed elevators, salary men and office ladies, steel and glass…An image that conveys the emotional distance between people and genres, something particularly important in Japanese culture. But it might talk also about the urban space as a opressive structure, a cage. I leave it to the audience's interpretation.
#27: These images were taken in Kabukicho, the red light district: sleazy places, tiny and seedy elevators, hostess and host bars, Yacuzas, sclubs, love hotels…This piece is more intimate. An insight into Tokyo's eyes, what lies underneath.
Xavier does not spend all his time absorbed in contemporary Japan.
He also looks ar tradition with Jiutamai, an ancient form of classical Japanese dance. My favorite photo in this serie is the woman with Mask (below).
Past and present, up and down, black and white, some color for Tokyo Thursdays # 173
Previously: 1 Most Read and 4 Underrated Tokyo Thursdays in 2010
(All photos by Xavier Comas © All rights reserved)