
TYO-WTC
- Publisher
- Akaaka Art Publishing
- Year
- 2013
- ISBN
- 978-4-86541-002-0
- Specifications
- Softcover
148 x 188 mm
112 pages
Folded-leaf (fukuro-toji) binding throughout
Art direction by Shin Akiyama
Text by Shino Kuraishi
Taiji Matsue is known for his highly detailed aerial photographs taken all over the world, crisp images full of visual information that invite the viewer to look across the entire frame. In TYO-WTC the 100 photographs were all taken from the same Tokyo building, and from only four fixed points within it, all facing nearly the same direction. As Matsue observes the same part of the city over a long period, changes appear: obvious ones, like the construction of a high-rise, and more ephemeral ones, like people coming and going or the type of train passing. The book does not follow a simple chronological order: time moves backwards and forwards, sometimes jumping unexpectedly, and Matsue alternates between colour and black and white. The effect is a reflection on the nature of cities, not just Tokyo in particular: in a city there has only ever been and will always be development, an unceasing cycle of construction and destruction.