Tokyo, Japan

Naoki Honjo

2002 · Chromogenic print · Photographs

At first glance, this bird's-eye view of Tokyo at night looks like an image of an obsessively detailed scale model. In fact, it is a photograph of the real world made by tilting and rotating the camera's lens in relation to the picture plane to achieve a very shallow depth of field with selective areas of focus. Honjo is one of a number of contemporary photographers using the "tilt-shift" technique to create disorienting images that seem to straddle reality and the make-believe world of toys. His photographs of Tokyo offer a new view of this postmodern metropolis, accentuating the fantastic artifice of the man-made environment.

Artist

Naoki Honjo

Date

2002

Medium

Chromogenic print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2008