3 Street Photography Collectives in Tokyo You Should Know
When people think about street photography in Japan, Tokyo is probably is the first city that comes to mind. There is a well-known scene for street photography in Tokyo that carries with it a certain ascetic.
If you are committed to becoming a better photographer - or better at anything for that matter - you will have to spend some time studying the masters of your craft. Street photography has become tremendously popular in the past few years and there is a lot noise out there. There is frankly a lot of bad work masquerading as street photography and even more from genuine photographers who are just not publishing refined work yet.
It can be hard to cut through the noise and find work that is inspiring and will help you understand what it means to make a meaningful photograph. If you have never seen strong examples of the street scene in Tokyo, I would recommend you check out a few of the street photography collectives listed below:
VoidTokyo
VoidTokyo is collective of street photographers founded by the world-famous Tatsuo Suzuki. The work from this collective is grungy, impactful, and full of emotion. To me, the look present among their work best represents what comes immediately to mind when I think of Tokyo’s street photography scene.
In a recent statement published on prophotosupply.com publicizing a gallery exhibition in the Summer of 2022, members of VoidTokyo stated their creative vision as a collective eye that gazes at the void of today's Tokyo.
“Surely this must be Tokyo's future too,” stated the article. “We have been capturing the future of Tokyo, which keeps changing, using various approaches of street photography. We want to continue presenting Tokyo as a record, a memory through photography.”
The the individual perspectives and methods of each VoidTokyo member is unique. However, the varied approaches to documenting the city come together to create a body of work that will surely be celebrated for years to come.
FRAME TOKYO
FRAME TOKYO consists of about ten core members, but their website exhibits a broad range of work created in Tokyo. It is clear the collective has a passion for showing a true-to-life look of Tokyo’s streets as they exist today. The regular blog posts in the showcase also give excellent exposure to other street photographers making pictures in Tokyo who may not be part of one of these well-known collectives.
“The purpose of FRAME TOKYO is to present the diversity of Tokyo street photography today,” according to Takeshi Ishikawa, one of the collective’s co-founders. “We also aim to make the culture and appeal of street photography more widely known to the general public.”
The goal of the collective is to de-stigmatize street photography and promote the value of the discipline as an art form that contributes to society as a whole. In doing so, the hope is that more photographers engage in street photography, growing the collective body of work documenting life as it exists today.
“We are not just a collective for our own enjoyment, but we are working together with FRAME TOKYO members and followers to promote the appeal of street photography and to build a culture of street photography as a major goal for the future,” he said.
Tokyo SPC (Street Photography Collective)
If you are looking for something a little more fun, I would suggest you look up Tokyo SPC. Their imagery is full of the inner-Tokyo party scene. But don’t be too quick to dismiss the work represented by the group, because there is some seriously good imagery there. The work of SPC members often shows a side of Tokyo few get to see outside of a late-night trip to Shinjuku, and it does it with artistry and style.
The group was founded by Yusuke Nagata in 2018 as a way to meet and work with other street photographers in Tokyo. Since then, the collective has grown to more than 30 members. He operates the SPC as a group that is open to for all photographers to join.
“Tokyo SPC doesn’t work as a collective now, we are just a community,” he said. “Some members are enjoying street photography as a hobby, and some are doing street photography as an art.
“So, I’m gonna keep Tokyo SPC as a community for photographers of all levels.”
This list is by no means comprehensive, but it will get your started on a path to finding some great photography. Go browse through these sites. Most of them link the collective members to an instagram or social media presence. I will encourage you to not only follow the collective members, but also take some time to see who are the excellent photographers they follow and what work they interact with. Doing that will open a whole new world of art coming out of Tokyo for you.
