The title refers to Takashi Kojo’s photography exhibition currently running at the Sony Imaging Gallery Ginza in Tokyo until Thursday, December 18th.
The location is across from Wako at the Ginza 4-chome intersection, where the Nissan Gallery used to be. It’s on the top floor of Sony’s flagship flagship store—the final boss’s lair, so to speak (lol)—which is why I hadn’t visited until now.
Excerpt from the “Artist Comment” featured in the PR article
For this exhibition, I decided to depict the “present” of this city based on passenger statistics released by various railway companies. By capturing the flow of countless people moving like grains of sand, I hope viewers can sense a fragment of ever-changing Tokyo.
Gallery overview (photography permitted in this composition)
This photo captures the bustling scene in front of a Tokyo downtown station with high passenger volume. By blurring the movement of people and vehicles, it conveys an expression of “moving like grains of sand.” It’s a somewhat mysterious photo, different from simply taking it with a slow shutter speed.
Fortunately, Mr. Kojo was present at the gallery, and though I can’t write the details here, I was able to briefly hear him explain, “This is how I take photos like this” (thank you!). I see. It was very educational.
By the way, I hadn’t noticed before, but this building still has a Nissan car display space on the second level. The Fairlady Z and Skyline GTR were displayed very stylishly. It felt a bit melancholy that these two models are still the ones featured.
The third floor is a PR space called the “Vitality Plaza” by Sumitomo Life Insurance. This is the hidden gem.
Not only can you freely come and go, but they generously allow visitors to “head out to the terrace and freely take ‘Instagrammable’ photos of Ginza 4-chome.” So I boldly went in and took some shots.
Wow. This is prime real estate, both in terms of property value and photography! If I’d known, I would’ve brought better gear. But then again, lugging heavy equipment in and setting up shop would probably bother Sumitomo Life Insurance, so I guess I’ll just have to keep it low-key.
And so, this was the chapter where I scouted out Sony’s main base in Ginza.
