Ricoh GR IV アーカイブ - The Tokyo Snap

Street Snap #60 Shinjuku Station Construction, June 2026 | GR IV

Dean — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:24:27 +0000

I once again walked around Shinjuku Station to document its constantly changing construction landscape. Although not much time had passed since my previous visit, the scenery around the station had already changed significantly.

What struck me most was the vast construction site excavated deep beneath the station. Several cranes stood above it as work continued far below ground. It felt as though the inner workings of the city, which will be hidden once construction is complete, had temporarily revealed themselves.

In this area, buildings and streets that have remained since the Showa era intersect with the new Shinjuku that is now taking shape. Each visit reveals a different landscape. I want to continue photographing Shinjuku Station regularly, recording not only its completed form but also its present state in the midst of transformation.

For this series, I used the Hard Monotone Image Control on the GR IV. By capturing the overlapping structures, construction sites, and passing crowds in black and white, I felt that the strength and disorder of Shinjuku emerged more clearly. Shinjuku simply suits monochrome. ■

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Street Snap #59 KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026: Architecture and Photography, Day 3

Dean — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:31:39 +0000

This is the third and final part of a three-part photo record from my visits to the venues of KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026.

On the final day, I first visited Lebohang Kganye’s “Rehearsal of Memory” at Higashi Honganji O-genkan. After that, since I had seen most of the KYOTOGRAPHIE venues I wanted to visit, I decided to spend the rest of the day walking around Kyoto with a focus on temples. I headed to Sanjusangen-do and Tofukuji, both of which I had visited before. At Sanjusangen-do, I wanted to see once again, with my own eyes, the overwhelming space filled with a thousand Buddhist statues. At Tofukuji, I wanted to revisit the Hojo Garden by Mirei Shigemori.

After that, I saw the special exhibition “Kitano Tenjin” at the Kyoto National Museum, which happened to be on view at the time. Some parts of the day could not be photographed, but I was able to keep them clearly as my own experience. Finally, before heading home, I photographed Kyoto Station again, the station building designed by Hiroshi Hara.

The final day moved from a KYOTOGRAPHIE exhibition venue to temples, a museum, and Kyoto Station. Rather than focusing only on exhibitions, it became a record of walking through Kyoto while looking again at places I had visited before, each with its own scale, history, and atmosphere.

The photos are arranged in the order in which I visited the venues over the three days. Day 3 records the time I spent at Higashi Honganji O-genkan, Sanjusangen-do, Tofukuji, the Kyoto National Museum, and Kyoto Station. ■

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Street Snap #58 KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026: Architecture and Photography, Day 2

Dean — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 16:09:09 +0000

This is the second part of a three-part photo record from my visits to the venues of KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026.

On the second day, I visited Thandiwe Muriu’s “Camo” and Federico Estol’s “Shine Heroes” at Kondaya Genbei, Linder Sterling’s “LINDER: GODDESS OF THE MIND” at The Museum of Kyoto Annex, and Juliette Agnel’s “Scents of Light” at Yuhisai Koudoukan.

The day took me through spaces that carry different layers of Kyoto’s history: Kondaya Genbei, with its deep connection to textile culture; The Museum of Kyoto Annex, a modern building from the Meiji period; and Yuhisai Koudoukan, which preserves the memory of an Edo-period academy. Vivid colors, collage, fiction, and traces of light and plants. Each exhibition offered a different form of expression, and as those works met the architecture and light of each venue, the experience of looking at photography itself seemed to change.

The photos are arranged in the order in which I visited the venues over the three days. Day 2 records the time I spent at Kondaya Genbei, The Museum of Kyoto Annex, and Yuhisai Koudoukan. ■

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Street Snap #57 KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026: Architecture and Photography, Day 1

Dean — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:37:35 +0000

This is Day 1 of a three-part record of the venues I visited during KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026.

Scattered throughout Kyoto, some of these exhibition spaces are historic buildings that are rarely open to the public, each carrying its own sense of time. Rather than documenting the works directly, I focused on the architecture, light, materials, and circulation of the spaces in which they were presented. As the works and their surroundings came together temporarily, the buildings revealed expressions that are not usually visible.

The photographs are presented in the order in which I visited the venues over three days. Day 2 and Day 3 will follow.

On the first day, I visited Jushin Kaikan for Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre’s The Shape of What Remains, the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art for Daido Moriyama’s A Retrospective, and Hachiku-an for Fatma Hassona’s The eye of Gaza and A4 Arts Foundation’s Photo book! Photo-book! Photobook! ■

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Street Snap #56 Shibuya Station Construction, June 2026 | GR IV

Dean — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:41:49 +0000

I recorded Shibuya, which I regularly observe from fixed points. In this city, where large-scale redevelopment keeps the landscape in constant flux, the scenery is updated little by little each time I visit. That is why I feel compelled to come back and record it more often than any other place.

This time, I began walking from the National Yoyogi Stadium, designed by Kenzo Tange. Along the way, I photographed a wall with a large print of a Daido Moriyama image that had long caught my attention, then headed toward Shibuya Station. Around the station, I recorded the flow of people passing by, construction vehicles, and the outline of the new city visible beyond the temporary barriers, and I finished at the construction site on the former Tokyu Department Store site in Dogenzaka.

Using my familiar GR IV, I photographed on a clear, hot day in June in Hard Monotone. I wanted to capture the strength of the light and shadow as they were. ■

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Street Snap #55 MARTIN MARGIELA AT KUDAN HOUSE, Tokyo, 2026 | GR IV

Dean — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:52:28 +0000

I visited the “Martin Margiela at KUDAN HOUSE” exhibition in Kudanshita, Tokyo. The venue, Kudan House, is a historic residence originally completed in 1927 as the Yamaguchi Bankichi Residence, and is now registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan. This time, I explored and photographed Martin Margiela’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan with the GR IV in hand.

Margiela’s works deconstruct the framework of clothing itself, revealing the structures and anonymity that lie beneath them. In contrast, the architecture of Kudan House presents a quiet and restrained presence, carrying traces of Japan’s post-earthquake reconstruction era. The tension between these two elements gave the space its distinctive atmosphere. The building, layered with history, quietly resonated with Margiela’s installations, further emphasizing the sense of presence and emptiness within the works.

Inside the exhibition, the interior space itself was composed as an extension of the works, where light, materials, and even traces of everyday life emerged as part of the installation. I had originally wanted to visit the building itself, so being able to experience both Kudan House and Margiela’s works simultaneously felt like an exceptionally rare opportunity.

Photography was permitted throughout the exhibition as long as other visitors were not visible in the frame. As a personal record of the experience, I leave here the photographs taken with the GR IV.

For this series, I used the GR IV’s “Hard Monotone” image setting to capture both Margiela’s works and the spaces of Kudan House in which they were placed.■

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Street Snap #52 Makishi Market Area, Naha, Okinawa | GR IV

Dean — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 17:33:25 +0000

From Kokusai Street, a well-known tourist destination in Naha, Okinawa, stepping just a little off the main road reveals the Makishi market area. In this district, multiple shopping arcades intertwine and extend into one another, forming a complex, almost maze-like structure. I walked through and documented the area, from the busy main streets filled with visitors to the quieter back alleys just beyond them.

Scenes where newly opened shops stand beside long-established stores feel as if layers of time have accumulated without interruption. Vegetation shaped by the warm climate, vivid signboards, goods displayed in dense and unstructured ways, and the presence of people moving through the space all merge together, creating a unique and saturated atmosphere. It carries an organic, unpredictable rhythm that differs from the order of more structured urban environments.

At the end of the walk, I climbed up to a small hill in the adjacent Kibogaoka Park. The stillness that unfolds beyond the intricate network of streets, along with the natural elements characteristic of Okinawa, sharply contrasts with the liveliness experienced just moments before.

For this series, I experimented with the newly introduced “Cinema (Yellow)” image control on the GR IV. Through this color profile, I aim to capture the market area of Okinawa with a subtly nostalgic texture. ■

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Street Snap #51 Shibuya Station Construction, May 2026 | GR IV

Dean — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:53:40 +0000

These are street snapshots I regularly take around Shibuya Station. The area in front of the station, in particular, is in the midst of a large-scale redevelopment and continues to change its appearance day by day. Temporary barriers, scaffolding, cranes, and constantly shifting pedestrian routes. A sense of the extraordinary, belonging to a city still in the process of becoming, lingers in this place, different from that of a completed urban landscape.

Shibuya has always been a place where chaos and vitality coexist, but the redevelopment site seems to amplify that character even further.

For someone who lives in Shibuya, photographing this scenery on a regular basis does not feel like a special act, but rather a natural extension of documenting everyday life. It is not only the finished city that matters, but also the time that exists along the way. (Though it might also be said that a city like Shibuya is never truly “complete.”)

This time, I used the “Vivid” image control on the GR IV. I wanted to capture the colorful atmosphere of Shibuya using the distinctive color rendering of this camera. I hope to continue recording the “present moment” of Shibuya Station as it keeps changing. ■

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Street Snap #50 Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum | GR IV

Dean — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:06:57 +0000

I visited the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo. This was the atelier and residence where Taro Okamoto lived and continued his work for more than forty years. Photography is permitted throughout the museum, and this time I explored the space with the GR IV in hand.

Okamoto’s works possess an intensity that seems to reject established frameworks and balance. In contrast, the building itself, designed by architect Junzo Sakakura, presents a composed and restrained form. The tension between these two elements gives the site its distinctive atmosphere. The carefully ordered architecture functions as a “frame” that contains the works, acting as a device that holds back their imminent sense of explosion.

Inside the museum, Okamoto’s artworks are interwoven with life-sized figures, an atelier bearing traces of his creative process, and a garden enveloped in greenery. Together, they create a vivid presence, as if Okamoto were still working here even now.

For this series, I used the GR IV’s “Vivid” color image setting. By emphasizing the contours of color, I sought to record more clearly the relationship between Okamoto’s ideas and the space that absorbed and sustained them. ■

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Street Snap #47 Fragments of Okinawa | GR IV

Dean — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:42:20 +0000

This series brings together fragments from walks through the city during my stay in Naha, Okinawa. As I moved through the streets, I photographed places that caught my attention and scenes where I naturally stopped to look.

Each visit to Naha reveals many details worth noticing. The city’s character emerges through its distinctive buildings, plants shaped by the warm climate, and an urban atmosphere formed by overlapping cultural and historical contexts often described as “champuru” culture.

For this series, I used the GR IV with the “Negative Film” image control. Its restrained color and contrast are well suited to recording the layered sense of time in the city and the traces of everyday life in Okinawa, without unnecessary emphasis. Rather than presenting a finished or polished view, these photographs document one aspect of Naha as it appears in the flow of daily activity. ■

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