Signs of Japan

After a bit of time off, I’m happy to report that Signs of Japan is being published into a limited-edition zine. 

This project, which spanned 3 years, was a real fun series to shoot, and a great excuse to walk all over Tokyo discovering new neighborhoods. 

The zine will feature a collection of dozens of photographs of Japanese street signs taken from 2014-2017. It’s a first edition of never-before published photographs—color prints on high-quality paper.

You can now place your pre-orders on my website for $15. The price will go up in a few weeks, so place your order sooner than later to get a little discount. 

You may have noticed that there hasn’t been a post in the last few days. There’s a good reason for that. 

You see, I no longer live in Japan. I moved back to the US last April. 

Before moving away, I built up a catalog of photos that, by posting one per day, lasted me until last week. Now I’m out.  During my three years living in the Tokyo area, I shot over 2,000 signs and roughly 1,500 made it onto this Tumblr page. The photo above was the first one I took with my trusty Fujifilm X-E1. 

I’d love to go shoot more. God knows there’s no shortage of amazing signs all over Japan. I could do this for the rest of my life.

However, another trip to Japan isn’t in the cards for now, so there won’t be any new photos of signs for a while. 

Doing this project has been extremely fulfilling. As far as I know, no one else has done extensive work documenting signs in Japan. Sharing them with you has been a true pleasure and I’m flattered by the press, compliments and attention it has brought me. 

I hope to one day collect my favorite signs in a printed document so that I may share it with you, but I haven’t figured out what that could be just yet. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them. 

As far as what happens to this Tumblr, I plan to start from the top and rerun the series by reediting the photos and posting some unpublished work. I’m still running my best shots over on Instagram if you’re interested. You can also check out my website for more of my work.