Taxis in Tokyo, they glow with a sense of urgency in the business of someone’s journey playing out. The way the landscape of the city can interact with the reflective surface’s of the taxi is often overlooked, these images aim to capture that light play with the energy and bustle of city life and the stillness of the individual within it.
The taxi series was mostly shot in dark backstreets, isolating their graphical elements and bringing everyday neon signs to centre stage. They were shot hand held on medium format from some precarious locations such as on highways and at lane intersections. As with all personal projects by Distil Ennui studio, they are presented as shot. This is how they describe the 'shot' photography process: "We see the process as cathartic rather than a critical one, and this dedication to ‘in-camera’ purity establishes a predominant focal point for our personal practice."
Distil Ennui is a collection of works that attempt to capture the beguiling beauty of life’s everyday confinements, re-proposing the ordinary, the displaced and the overlooked.
Photography Copyright © 2010 Alexander James.
The Taxi series is available to order in fine art print or license for print and web use through alexanderjamesstockphotography.com website.
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