5 Tokyo Fine Art Prints – The Story Behind Each Shot

Tokyo doesn't reveal itself easily. You have to be there early — before the city wakes, before the light turns ordinary, before the streets fill with the noise that erases everything quiet and strange. These five prints were made in those moments. Each one is a story. Each one is a place I went back to, again and again, until the light was right.

1. Tokyo Vintage Ride

It was 6am on a Tuesday in Shimokitazawa. The neighbourhood was still asleep — shuttered bars, empty record shops, a cat crossing the road without looking. Then this car appeared. A vintage taxi, pale yellow, moving slowly as if it belonged to a different decade entirely. I had maybe four seconds to frame the shot before it turned the corner.

That's what street photography is. You don't plan it. You position yourself where something might happen, and then you wait. Tokyo rewards patience more than any city I know.

The print : Tokyo Vintage Ride is available as a limited edition fine art print, numbered from 1 to 30. Printed on archival Hahnemühle paper, signed. → View the print

2. Tokyo Tower On Fire

I'd walked past Tokyo Tower a hundred times. It's one of those landmarks that becomes invisible through familiarity — you stop seeing it. Then one evening in November, the sky turned. Not gradually. All at once, like someone had switched a filter over the city. The tower was suddenly burning orange, the clouds behind it moving fast, the whole scene lasting maybe eight minutes before it was gone.

I ran. Literally ran to find a clear sightline. The shot exists because of those eight minutes and because I happened to be close enough.

The print : Tokyo Tower On Fire captures that specific light at that specific moment. Limited edition, 30 prints. → View the print

3. Tokyo Utility Pole

This one surprises people. Of all the prints in the Tokyo collection, it's the one that gets the most questions — why a utility pole?

Because Tokyo is a city of wires. They run everywhere — above the streets, between buildings, across rooftops. To visitors they look like chaos. To me they look like calligraphy. Each wire has a destination. Each pole connects something to something else. Shot in Yanaka, one of the few neighbourhoods that survived both the 1923 earthquake and the wartime bombings. The sky that morning was completely white. The wires were perfectly black against it. It felt like ink on paper.

The print : Tokyo Utility Pole — minimalist, graphic, unmistakably Japanese. Limited edition, 30 prints. → View the print

4. Tokyo Sunset River

Sumida River, late October. The bridges were lit, the water was moving fast from the rain the day before, and the last ten minutes of sunset were turning the whole surface of the river into something molten. Two silhouettes — a couple, I think — standing on the far bank, not moving, just watching the sky do what it was doing.

I didn't want to disturb the scene. Shot from distance, long lens, held my breath.

The print : Tokyo Sunset River — warm tones, quiet drama, limited to 30 prints. Ships worldwide. → View the print

5. Golden Hour in Tokyo Marina

Odaiba, just before the sun dropped behind the city skyline. The marina was almost empty — a few boats, a single figure on the pier, the towers of Tokyo reflected in the water behind them. The golden light lasted exactly long enough to make this shot. Twenty seconds later it was blue hour, and everything changed.

There's a version of Tokyo that only exists for about fifteen minutes each day, at this exact time of evening. This print is that version.

The print : Golden Hour in Tokyo Marina — luminous, cinematic, limited to 30 prints. → View the print

Why Limited Editions?

Each print in the Tokyo collection is limited to 30 numbered copies. Once they're gone, they're gone — I don't reprint. The number of your edition is hand-written on the certificate of authenticity that comes with every order.

This isn't a marketing device. It's how I've always worked. A limited edition means something. It means the person who owns print 7/30 owns something specific, something that only 29 other people in the world will ever have.

About the Prints

All Vingt-deux Bis fine art prints are produced on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308g — the archival standard for fine art photography. Colours are accurate, blacks are deep, and the paper has a texture that makes the image feel physical, not digital.

Sizes available : A3 · A2 · A1 Framing : Prints are sold unframed. We recommend a simple black or natural wood frame with a white mount. Shipping : Worldwide. Prints are rolled in protective tissue and shipped in rigid tubes.

→ Shop the full Tokyo collection

Vingt-deux Bis is a fine art photography project shooting across Tokyo, Saigon, Hong Kong and Dubai. All editions are limited, numbered and signed.