The Two Faces of Tokyoites

In the series Tokyo Tokyo, Dutch artist duo WassinkLundgren decided to emulate photographs taken in the 19th century using stereoscopic cameras by placing the same subject and the same moment side by side, captured from two different angles. The series was assembled in 2010 in a book published by Kodoji Press and Archive of Modern Conflict.

Thijs groot Wassink and Ruben Lundgren, born in The Netherlands in 1981 and 1983, respectively, live in London and Beijing. Their work has been exhibited in galleries all over the world and they have received numerous awards, including the China Academy Award in 2010 and the Prix du Livre at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2007. The FOAM photography museum in Amsterdam presented a retrospective of their work in 2013.

Capturing the decisive moment

The photographers capture these everyday scenes, the banality of which elicits a smile, during their long walks through the streets of the Japanese capital. Beyond the scenes presented, however, the artists emphasise the social dimension of their photography, particularly by highlighting the different ways of viewing our environment.

Tokyo Tokyo shows the residents of Tokyo going about their daily business, doing sport or engaging in professional activities, relaxing, or shopping. But, as Frits Gierstberg, curator at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, explains, although this project ‘consists of a series of diptychs in which the mythical “decisive moment” of traditional documentary photography is lampooned, in their projects, WassinkLundgren playfully turn the unwritten rules of the photography upside down. But behind the joke is always a serious attempt to expand both the artistic as well as the social significance of their medium.’

Still at the crossroads between conceptual and documentary photography, and again playing on the repetition of scenes, the duo also created the series Empty Bottles, ‘which catches 24 Chinese people as they scavenge bottles placed by the photographers in various locations.’

Tokyo Tokyo (2010), a book of photographs by the duo WassinkLundgren, is published by Kodoji Press in partnership with Archive of Modern Conflict.