“Today Tokyo” features photographs taken by Chotoku Tanaka in the early years of his career. In the 1960s, Tanaka discovered his interest in Tokyo as a subject of his photography. It was an era of change both for Japan and Tokyo itself, driven by rapid economic growth and the newly redefined image of Japan in the world following the 1964 Toko Olympics. Resultingly, Tanaka’s snapshots, cityscapes and street photographs, taken in the 1960s and 1970s, offer not only a look at Tanaka’s early steps as a photographer but also capture the ambivalent atmosphere of a country that suddenly found itself within stratospheric growth.

“It wasn’t until the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 that I came to appreciate Tokyo as a theme. 1964 was the year when Tokyo was first recognized not as the capital of a defeated country, but as a dynamic city in the Far East.”
― from Chotoku Tanaka’s afterword

-Book Size
200 × 200 mm
-Pages
132 pages, 115 images
-Binding
Hardcover
-Publication Year
2022
-Language
English, Japanese
-Limited Edition
750
-ISBN
978-4-910244-14-3

Artist Profile

Chotoku Tanaka

Born in Tokyo, 1947, Tanaka graduated from Nihon University College of Art, specializing in photography. While he was still in school, he had already been publishing his works in magazines and exhibiting at galleries, and after graduating he stayed in Vienna, New York and Prague to work as a photographer. Tanaka has a reputation for his deep knowledge of cameras and photography — he is still writing for many specialized magazines and his own web magazine “Chotoku’s Camera Notes”. His main publications include “Vienna, New York, Niigata” (1991, Broadcasting System of Niigata), “Wien Monochrome 70’s” (2005, Tokyo Kirara), “Panoramic Photography Europe 1975” (2020, Zen Foto Gallery) and many more.

Gallery Exhibitions