#91 A week in Tokyo
If there’s a quote you really want to live by, you should print it out and put in front of your toilet.
I made my first trip to China in 1998. It changed my life. I’m sure many other hyphenated Americans felt the same way the first time they visited their ancestral countries.
I brought my 35mm film camera and took photos of everything I could. I shot slide film, because that’s what you did back then. These slides are sitting in a box somewhere in my studio. (One day I plan to hire a studio assistant and really get my life in order).
I went back to China in 1999 with a very sophisticated 2.1MP Olympus C-2040 Digital Camera (available for $8 on eBay if you’re interested).
I made this photo on my favorite street in Liulichang, Beijing. You don’t need to think much about travel photography—you just document what you see and reference them later when you’re in a studio slump. They’re very handy.
Shooting for travel when you’re “on assignment” for a story is kind of the worst. I can’t really experience places and make “good” photos at the same time. It’s nice when there are no deliverables to be had and you can just snap away when you feel like it.
I just came back from a week in Tokyo. I was working on a story, but Laura and I had a few days off, and I took these photos. What are they called? Travel reference photos? I don’t know.
A few of these pictures already unintentionally inspired another project that I’ll share with you later. Most of the time the best work happens when you don’t really care or try too hard.
The stuff you stress out over—or put your heart and soul into—generally gets ignored, makes you go broke, and gives you stress headaches until you turn into a miserable grouch.
The fun stuff ends up, well, being fun I guess.
Have you read this quote before by Thoreau?
“The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. There will be a wide margin for relaxation to his day.”
This was pinned in an outhouse in an old vacation home I used to go to, and I think about it all the time.
If there’s a quote you really want to live by, you should print it out and put in front of your toilet.
Tokyo was great. Those guys are into really wild pants. I’m into it. They are at the forefront of pants design and technology.
The biggest tourist thing I wanted to do there was have a drink in one of those super tiny four-person bars. I did it. It was great enough that I didn’t have to take any photos.
-Chris Force