Tokyo Weekender - December 2017 - January 2018

EVEN THOUGH IT’S A
CITY OF 13 MILLION
PEOPLE ... THERE ARE
THESE UNKNOWN
PLACES
endless ... As a photographer, there are so
many stories to tell, so many things to shoot.”
His Noctopolis series is a collection of
night images that capture a city unwinding
from its daily grind. In one photo, there’s a
narrow enclave exposing the back kitchen of
a Chinese restaurant. The scene is a cavernous
patchwork of hangers, a sink, two white
statues of smiling children, and tarp hanging
from the ceiling corners. Colors and detail
compose chaos. Everything looks like it could
be covered in grease with peach hairs of dust
and grit, giving it texture. Lukasz says that he
was thinking of the street scenes from Blade
Runner when he shot it. (At the time of writing,
the film Blade Runner 2049 had just been
released in Japan. Lukasz had already seen it.
He says he “still prefers the original. But this
one was a great continuation and expansion
of the world. I enjoyed it a lot.”) The film’s
apparent influence on Lukasz’s work gives
Photographer and
Eyexplore co-founder
Lukasz Palka came to
Tokyo as a Sophia University
exchange student. He
was born in Poland, but his parents
immigrated to Chicago when he
was five. After graduating college,
to postpone “getting a real job,” he
figured he’d teach English in Japan.
It didn’t seem far-fetched since some
of his friends were already doing
it. Nine years ago, his plan was to
stay here for a year. While teaching
during the day and photographing
Tokyo at night, he fell in love with
the city. Taking pictures was always
a casual hobby. It was something
that he picked up from his father, but
the longer he stayed here, the more
serious he got about his craft. “What
I like most is Tokyo itself,” he says.
Famous for its otherworldly
culture, the city’s nightscape is like
an incarnation of the film Tron.
The limelights of Tokyo’s popular
spots beam an omnipresent tone,
coloring the reflecting streets. It’s
the dark fringes of those areas that
Lukasz drifts through, unearthing
their beauty as though mining
treasure. “Tokyo does have its touristy
spots, but if you go 15 minutes
in any direction, away from those
hot spots, suddenly you’re on your
own. You might find something
to photograph that no one’s ever
photographed before. Even though
it’s a city of 13 million people ...
there are these unknown places,”
he says. Focusing on landscape
and street photography, “Tokyo is
extremely diverse when you go to
different areas ... it’s so big and
TOKYO WEEKENDER | DEC 2017 - JAN 2018 | 25