Takeshi Tokitsu is a Tokyo-based photographer and visual artist. His long-term practice explores the invisible social structures and underlying forces that shape contemporary Japanese society. Working across a broad range of methods—from traditional documentary approaches to material-driven conceptual practices—he constructs multilayered visual narratives through exhibitions and photobooks.
Focusing on deeper mechanisms embedded in mature urban environments—such as systems of surveillance, inequality, and exclusion, as well as subtle pressures toward conformity and latent totalitarian tendencies—his work visualizes both physical and psychological shifts in society. These include people rendered invisible by urban transformation and changes in collective psychology that emerge as memories of war gradually fade.
In recent years, he has also been developing new bodies of work that examine how AI-driven systems extend and transform existing structures of surveillance, control, and exclusion, and how these systems affect deeper layers of human psychology.
■Solo Exhibitions
2025 ATMOSPHERE, PlaceM, Tokyo, Japan
2025 BEHIND THE BLUE, KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+SELECT, Kyoto, Japan
2024 BEHIND THE BLUE, Nikon Salon, Tokyo, Japan
2020 TOKYO-JISHUKU: COVID-19 SELF-RESTRAINT, TOKYO, PlaceM, Tokyo, Japan
2019 45 seconds, nagune, Tokyo, Japan
2018 CELL, Sony Imaging Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
2013 DAYS FUKUSHIMA, Osaka Nikon Salon, Osaka, Japan
2012 DAYS FUKUSHIMA, Ginza Nikon Salon, Tokyo, Japan
■Publications
2025 ATMOSPHERE (photobook, self-published)
2024 BEHIND THE BLUE (photobook, self-published)
2020 TOKYO-JISHUKU: COVID-19 SELF-RESTRAINT, TOKYO (photobook, Please Publishing)
■Awards / Recognition
2026 Finalist, 34th Hayashi Tadahiko Award
2026 Selected for “Art and Politics” Online Exhibition at Site:Brooklyn, New York (ATMOSPHERE)
2026 Invited Jury Member (Photography), ADC Annual Awards (Art Directors Club, New York)
2025 LensCulture “Editors’ Favorite Photobooks 2025 – The Big List” – Selected
2025 KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival, KG+SELECT – Finalist
2023 World Photo Annual (Photojournalism Category), Honorable Mention; People’s Vote Award
2021 Paris Photo Prize (Book Category), Bronze Prize
2011 Japan Magazine Photographers Association Award – Grand Prize
