Tokyo’s Citywide Celebration of Photography Returns
This October, the eighth edition of the T3 Photo Festival Tokyo turns the city’s central hubs — Yaesu, Nihonbashi, Kyobashi and Ginza — into a 24-day celebration of photography. This year’s theme is “& to,” (“to” is the Japanese conjunction for “and”) and examines how the camera can bridge unexpected gaps, connecting human stories with the changing environments around them. The festival features 12 exhibitions, all free to visit, with more than 16 artists and collectives taking part.
Two main exhibitions lead the lineup. South African visual activist Zanele Muholi presents Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), a striking series of self-portraits where everyday household items like scouring pads and clothes pins are transformed into regal headpieces. Simultaneously, American photographer Lucas Foglia’s Constant Bloom tracks the migration of Painted Lady butterflies from Africa into Europe, capturing their delicate forms alongside various human lives and across political borders.
You’ll also want to stop by two special exhibitions. The first is “Shoji Ueda’s Inner Child / Hidden Within the Chrysalises,” which pairs legendary Japanese photographer Shoji Ueda’s series Children the Year Around (1971) with his former student Akemi Mure’s subtle portraits of teenage life. The second, Sarah van Rij’s “L’épaisseur du temps,” showcases the acclaimed Dutch photographer’s surreal, cinematic renderings of Tokyo street scenes and fleeting gestures.
For those interested in acquiring work or exploring photo publishing, the festival also hosts T3 Photo Asia (October 17–19), a ticketed art fair that brings together 24 galleries from across the region, and T3 Book Marché, a photo book fair held concurrently.
