Security at the Tokyo Forum

This image has a lot of sub-images buried within it. I've been having fun picking out some I like (particularly this) but can't decide what others might prefer to look at. My instinct is just to print it big and let the viewer choose for themselves. Any contrarians here?

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), November 17, 2000

Answers

Cool image. Reminds me of a cross between an erector set and the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris with all the tubes you walk through, etc. Like Michael Meyer's "Bokaap, Capetown, South Africa," the "people" aspect is somewhat diminished, but in this one the people below and the person atop are not as hidden. The people here show the overall scale perfectly. I like the whole picture better than the portion you link to. I like the great feeling of foreground to background depth. I also like the logical sense of dark on bottom, light on top. Also, I would be afraid to death to walk through one of those things, as I can hardly walk through a second story sky-bridge!

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), November 17, 2000.

This would be pretty cool if done about 6 feet square!

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), November 17, 2000.

I am astounded by the sensibility that allows an architect to think that this is a good environment for people to spend most of their lives in. It looks like a really fun place to visit, but I'd hate to work there 40+ hours per week. It kind of reminds me of that Borg spaceship/artificial planet on StarTrek, The Next Generation, but sunnier. Maybe a Borg Shopping Mall (where's the StarBucks?). I expect there are little androidish cyborgs plugged into the "network" in bajillions of cubicles (like a prison cell?), being fed data and Soylent Green...

I like the picture like it is, crop wise, but the color (even as cool as it is) makes the place seem friendlier than I want to imagine it. Desaturated (or shifted?) to a monochrome might make it really intense. I think John's right, about 2.5 meters square oughta do it. Is it a square neg? I hope so... t

p.s. I think it's overwhelmingly about "people".

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), November 17, 2000.

Thanks for the vote of confidence folks. The image is most of a 6x6 transparency so it should enlarge nicely. Practical considerations max out my darkroom at 30x40 cm in colour, but perhaps if I win the lottery I'll go for a mural.

I like to think that the atmosphere is at least partly my doing, although sometimes I feel that my photographs of buildings are merely repeating ideas which found expression long ago in the mind of the architect. I think avoiding that is why the people are so important - just as a figure in a landscape can direct the viewers response beyond the scenery.

Opressiveness is one element, but I also wanted to show the security guards as reluctant angels, leading an exalted but tedious life at the top level of all that grandeur while life goes on elsewhere. I can't show it on the web, but in addition to the pair on the gantries there are two more peering over one of the parapets on the left.

Sticking with friendly colour is deliberate. It is a huge barn of a building, but the sunken base level hums with life, and it seems to be a popular place to break out the bento box come lunchtime. Shown larger, it's really obvious that the guard's uniforms are royal blue, which adds a touch of whimsey and stops things getting too opressive. I agree that it would be possible to make an interesting print by emphasising the Metropolis aspects, but that's not at all how I felt when I was there. Perhaps I'll change my mind if someone posts a suitably-doctored B+W example - feel free to help me see.

Tony, I've always loved being high up, but I am superstitious enough to prefer even crumbling and rotten rock to most man-made structures. The walkways are pretty wide, so it is possible to not-look-down. I'd definitely recommend the Forum as worth visiting for any Tokyo-bound photographers, especially as it is one of the very few things open on a monday. How it looks depends how you look:

Alternate viewpoints

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), November 20, 2000.

I sometimes wonder if we weren´t happier when we lived as hunters and gatherers...

And which state of mind does living in these surroundings bring about?

Sorry. I`m very inpressed with all the pics.

-- Christel Green (look.no@film.dk), November 21, 2000.

OK, I give up. what's a "custodiet"?

-- Chris Yeager (cyeager@ix.netcom.com), November 21, 2000.

the only image that i enjoyed was the last one. the others are mundane and cluttered; of course, just my opinion.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), November 21, 2000.

Chris, "Quid custodiet ipsos Custodes" is a bit of cliche among those trying to sell security equipment and software. I have to look these things up in books, so of course it's the bastardised version I couldn't find that lodges in the brain.

Christel, it is a slightly odd theme to persue into a building that is literally the forum for a capital city, but I was encouraged by the feel of people quietly conducting their private lives in public. For example, the man in the light overcoat in that last picture has a complete three course lunch spread out on the bench. Juvenal originally said "Who guards the guards" ("Quis custodiet...") in the context of locking up your wife to prevent adultery - the implication being that human nature can't be supressed.

Wayne, I can live with one out of four. You should just be grateful I didn't show the one where the people are blurred. One reason I've moved up in format for my travel photography is that I'm conciously trying to give my subjects more space, and in some cases to play with compositions that lack a single main centre of interest - Chinese or C17th landscapes rather than Meunchisms. Current technology makes it hard to convey here, but at least some of the clutter evaporates as the reproduction improves, and small details clarify, which makes what 'point' there is a bit less obscure.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), November 22, 2000.