Takashi Homma: Tokyo Olympia

A large-format board-book sequel to Homma's seminal photobook Tokyo Suburbia

Over six years, Japanese photographer Takashi Homma (born 1962) photographed the Tokyo landscape and cityscape in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Tokyo Olympia, a continuation and reinterpretation of Homma's seminal book Tokyo Suburbia, and likewise designed as a large-format board book, features images that capture the massive scale of the megalopolis. One of the sites documented is the old National Stadium, chronicling its transformation into the new National Stadium, and another is the Tsukiji Market just before its relocation to Toyosu Market. Homma's photography possesses a uniquely cool gaze that rejects any sentimentality and portrays its subjects with a characteristic sense of distance and cool tonality; he has received acclaim not only in the world of photography but also contemporary art. This volume's canonical (and extremely collectible) 1998 precursor, Tokyo Suburbia, was awarded the Kimura Ihei Commemorative Photography Award in 1999.