Tokyo Silver Paradise

John SYPAL

Named after the silver gelatin process used to make analog prints in the darkroom, John Sypal’s “Tokyo Silver Paradise” captures the Japanese capital in black and white pictures. Composed of innocuous and significant moments, observations of peculiar scenes and unique oddities, portrays, snapshots and intuitive captures, Sypal builds a visual archive of his Tokyo experience. Shot mainly in central and eastern parts of the city, the more relaxed, more open, more heartful (but at times disorganized, charmingly chaotic) atmosphere of shitamachi Tokyo unfolds further with every new image.

“Tokyo, ever inexhaustible, is a paradise of silver. Tokyo is photography.”
― from the afterword (included in English and in Japanese translation)

-Book Size
200 × 200 mm
-Pages
132 pages, 93 images
-Binding
Hardcover
-Publication Year
2022
-Language
English, Japanese
-Limited Edition
700
-ISBN
978-4-910244-20-4

Artist Profile

John SYPAL

Born in Nebraska, USA in 1979. After graduating from the University of Nebraska he moved to Japan in 2004 and began exhibiting his photography in 2005. His main exhibitions include “Nebraska, The Good Life” (Nikon Salon, 2005), “The Difference Between” (Konica Minolta Plaza, 2007), “Gaijin Like Me” (Nikon Salon, 2008), “195” (Kaido Ribbon, 2010), “John Sypal Photographs” (Yokohama Sogo Leica Shop, 2015), and “An Endless Attraction” (Leica Tokyo, 2022). In 2010 he joined Totem Pole Photo Gallery, where he has been exhibiting his ongoing Zuisha series since 2012. From 2008 he began Tokyo Camera Style, through which he shares Japanese photographic culture online. The ongoing project was compiled and published as a photobook by Thames & Hudson in 2015.

Gallery Exhibitions