Photographing Emptiness

Osaka, Thursday, 4 aM

Osaka, Thursday, 4 a.m. The shadows seem to try to be menacing. The streets want to be empty.

Night Parking

At night the city is full of empty parking lots. Always lit, sometimes with a single space and another companies parking lot, again a single space, right next to it.

Around the corner. Japan.

Most nights, after 3 or 4 am, we would go through the back streets of wherever we were staying and look at what things are like without the people. These streets reminded me of the last scene of “On the Beach,” from the 60’s or so. They left me feeling very despondent and alone. The end of the movie went through my head over and over.

Osaka Nights #2

Still in Osaka, taking images, mostly between 4-5 am, empty streets, very quiet. There is a sense of waiting. Some “snack bars” have just closed and the owners are still cleaning up. Garbage trucks are always out at this time. Parking lots are usually empty but in some parts of town there are multiple cars parked as residents have no where to leave their vehicles. No one walking by looks at us or plays an attention as they would elsewhere. Dawn comes with a purple and pinkish sky at one end of the city and at the other a light blue appears.