Underground Universe
By Anne Keehn
About 35 million people—10% of Japan’s population—reside in Tokyo. And that doesn’t include the 2.5 million commuters who travel into the city to work or attend school. Throngs of people seep out of every nook and cranny of the city, and it is virtually impossible to snap a photograph without a human presence.
In this backdrop of dense human traffic, images of urban desertion are novelties—an expansive breath of fresh air amidst the suffocating crowds.
Back in 2000, photographer Masataka Nakano put out a book, Tokyo Nobody, featuring images of deserted Tokyo. This book was startling for residents of the Asian metropolis, and it became an instant hit.
Recently, the inimitable web magazine, PingMag, featured an interview with Joe Nishizawa, who documents the underground tunnels and construction work that expand like futuristic landscapes below Tokyo. Nishikawa has also taken stunning photographs of the insides of nuclear power plants—Japan houses 55 nuclear reactors that provide about 30% of the country’s electricity—all published in his book, Deep Inside. And he is not the only photographer who has explored the world below. Hideaki Uchiyama has published a series of books titled Japan Underground, which further explore Japan’s mysterious underground structures.
On a similar note, in our “Death and Fame” issue last year, SWINDLE featured a story, written by Michael Jay Miller, on “haikyo mania” (haikyo being the Japanese word for “ruins”)—the practice of photographing deserted, crumbling post-WWII buildings and amusement parks in forgotten corners of the island nation. (Miller wrote further about this topic for Japanese magazine Metropolis.)
More images from Joe Nishizawa after the jump.
