I can't see anything "vivid" on those pictures, honestly.
Me neither. They seemed badly framed and intruisive to many of the subjects. Street photography demands some respect for privacy or at least more discreet shooting
Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
41–50 of 91 posts
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking as a male I take great offense to the pejorative 'creepshot'. Very sexist and offensive.
I don't know how to ask this without it seeming dismissive, but how much more difficult is it to live your normal life by someone's use of this word?
You are asking why sticks and stones break bones, but why should words hurt?
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#43I can't see anything "vivid" on those pictures, honestly.
Isn't vividness in the eye of the beholder, like beauty?
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's immensely unfortunate that there's still this ingrained mindset that in order to live a proper middle-class life you have to settle in the middle of suburbia hell where there's nothing around for miles. Though it doesn't help that the entire system is built to subsidize and encourage islands of suburbia separated by long stretches of highway. Japan's centralization of population, strong public transit systems an…
Tokyo's public transit system is overrated IMO. Sure, trains and subways cover a lot of ground and are usually on time, but most of the lines are well over 100% crowdedness during rush hour: https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/the-most-...
I wouldn't want to do this daily and thus wouldn't accept work in the business center of Tokyo. But here's why Japanese way of living and commuting still makes more sense to me than the equivalent in the US:
* Japan has a very open zoning law. There's nothing stopping developers building residential buildings of different pricing levels right next to businesses. This more often allows people to move close to their work.
* partly thanks to the first reason, Tokyo is quite a bit less centralized than, say, NY. You can also see this clearly in its skyline. I found that even during rush hours it's usually no problem for me to arrive where I need on time - on those lines that can get completely full the frequency of connections tends to be very high, so you can just wait in line for the next one. And yes, queueing for a train actually works in Japan.
* Even when taking a crowded train I still feel more relaxed than a similar situation in Europe or the US - mainly because Japanese are just more considerate. People are always filling up empty spaces, move with the flow and give space when needed - you just ask nicely and otherwise do what you can on your part to make things work together. There's also no smells and no noises. I think I could get used even to rush hour - just put on head phones and move like everyone else, don't rush, calculate additional time so you don't have to.
Don't get me wrong, their system is far from perfect - it's just that among the alternatives I find it one of the better ones. The problem I have there is more with work culture and education, but there's hope for betterment lately at least for the former.
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
US cities are a mess because middle class families abandoned them for the newly built suburbs in a coordinated, subsidized, and regulated movement. Individual families were not expected to walk out into the fields and personally make them habitable. They certainly weren’t turned away by policies designed to preserve the status quo, compensate/empower those adversely affected by a proposed change, etc. Highway constru…
We’re funding mass transit at a fraction of the rate necessary, and I don’t see that changing - along as governments are considered incompetent and taxes are considered evil.
We're also building transit at 5x the cost per unit of distance. Compare the costs of NYC second avenue versus recent Tokyo and Paris lines.
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#46Somewhat related: One of my favorite Youtube channels is Rambalac. It's just videos of walking through various places in Japan, from crowded streets to peaceful natural areas. No voiceover or explanations - almost every video is as if a video camera were moving around on its own and recording everything it saw (occasionally he interacts with things). Super relaxing to have on in the background, and really cool to wat…
By any chance, do you know what kind of camera Rambalac uses?
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As a guy the Japanese police will not be happy if you take candids of women or kids That's true. There is a lot of fear, prejudice and prudery around gender and age in the arts. That doesn't mean we should stop thinking: It's crucial to assess for ourselves whether a picture appears to us as offensive as we are confronted with it. Otherwise the criticism is just meaningless, recycled fear.
> That doesn't mean we should stop thinking: It's crucial to assess for ourselves whether a picture appears to us as offensive as we are confronted with it. That's an interesting thought. Do you think photographers should have a moral responsibility? A famous example I can think of is the controversy surrounding "The vulture and the little girl" by Kevin Carter. In terms of street photography, is it OK to "creep" or…
Good question and I don't think I have a great answer.
I personally believe that morality lies not in the document, but in the context it is created or displayed in.
If, for example, the intention appears to me to be dishonest, exploitative or outright cruel, I'd want to criticize the person responsible for putting this document into this context. Whether this is done by creating the document or changing its context doesn't appear as relevant to me.
Regarding the declarative line you mention, I think I'm pretty much a pragmatist: I do not need to know where exactly the border is between India and China to know that Delhi is in India.
...but I'm open to a more rule based approach as well. I just don't know one.
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#48Somewhat related: One of my favorite Youtube channels is Rambalac. It's just videos of walking through various places in Japan, from crowded streets to peaceful natural areas. No voiceover or explanations - almost every video is as if a video camera were moving around on its own and recording everything it saw (occasionally he interacts with things). Super relaxing to have on in the background, and really cool to wat…
I live in Tokyo and wish I could see it through the eyes of someone new here again. I can see it in these videos, but when I walk through the city I'm too used to it and my brain drowns out all of these things.
So a technique I've found useful to solve this issue aside from hanging out with someone visiting is to dedicate 1 day to doing nothing but picking a place that you're very familiar with and intentionally thinking about whether you've been down that street or the next one, looking at places that I wouldn't usually look like at the corners of the roof of buildings and then just taking a moment to sit down and watch.
This has worked for me in each of the cities I've ever become too familiar with. You just tend to relax and get to where you want to go, there's no nervous energy of not knowing where you are or where you're going. Nowadays I tebd to just pop on my headphones and go to where I need and go back home again and not take in a thing unless I have a bit of a "reset"
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Young children ride the subway alone to school, it’s a different world
I see tiny kids walking down narrow (I would call dangerous due to traffic) streets. See them crossing sidewalks. As a parent of a one year old I find this scary and fascinating.
Traffic in residential Tokyo streets is also super slow, because drivers are well aware that they're full of kids, grannies, cats, etc. And you're pretty much automatically at fault if you hit a pedestrian.
Re: Snapshots of Tokyo’s vivid street life
#50Why did the author mostly creepshot women and children?
It's not "creepshot" in my opinion. But even it is, the answer is "Why not?". Each artist has it's own interest/style.