HAIKYO The Modern Ruins of Japan
HAIKYO: The Modern Ruins of Japan
Shane Thoms
Hardback 216 pages
With mazes of expressways pushing scores of traffic through action filled, neon lit cities, there is perhaps no better platform than Japan to grasp the full motion and machinery of life. But sitting silently in the shadows waits another realm. Just as intoxicating, enchanting and engaging as its counterpart albeit not as animated or ablaze with flashing lights, hundreds of abandoned abodes lay forgotten and left to decay.
Stepping away from the lights and into the shadows, photographer Shane Thoms embarks on an underground voyeuristic journey, documenting a curious collection of images that provide a rare and intimate glimpse into a secret, mysterious and sometimes bizarre world.
Shane Thoms’s works have been featured in CNN, Huffington Post, Daily Mail and The Business Insider and document the visual fragments of what is now an erased moment in the process of Japans urban evolution. All culturally significant, each photograph is a platform where the observer can reflect upon this resilient countries hidden journey from permanence to disposability, composition to decomposition and construction to deconstruction.