In this work, I capture the emotional scene in the everyday life of ever-changing urban landscape of Shibuya, and convey my feelings of exploring the future. I have been shooting Shibuya since my moving to Tokyo for more than 8 years.
When I walk in Shibuya, I feel the tension as if the accumulated past time and the time something is about to begin collide each other. It's amazing how this city is changing, radiating tremendous energy to inspire hope and potential for the future. On the other hand,the city looks very dense and chaotic where the streets between the buildings standing crowded together are also crowded with people walking without gaps. Coincidentally this moment, COVID-19, a global pandemic, have struck such everyday life. Due to the government request to refrain from going out, the sights of people disappearing from the city have become a reality that we have never seen. For me, COVID-19 seems an alert that suggests to remind us of how blessed our daily lives used to be, and to change our behavior and society for the next era. During the people were required self-restriction of going outside, I would not visit to shoot the scramble crossing in Shibuya where people disappeared. Instead, I got the time to put together the works I had taken in Shibuya before COVID-19 as the first phase of this project.
As a next step, I would like to pursue how the cities and people after COVID-19 will change to the coming New Normal. Perhaps the happy relationship between the swollen metropolis and human beings may not come from being surrounded by overflowing things, but from having time and space where people can gather and share the preciousness of every connection. Shibuya must be one of such largest cities in the past and present which is leading ahead of the times with overwhelming energy and speed. I will keep shooting ever changing Shibuya.
