About

Hi. I’m Jonas. I came to Tokyo in 2016 on a three-month photography residency and never quite left.

I grew up in Göteborg on the Swedish west coast, studied philosophy for three years and photography for four, and worked for most of my twenties as a wedding photographer in Stockholm. Weddings are very good training for reading light in a hurry. In late 2015 a Japanese gallery invited me to spend a season photographing Tokyo night streets for a small exhibition; I did, the exhibition happened in March 2016, and I flew home for three weeks and then came back.

Nine years later I live in a two-room apartment on the west side of Shinjuku station with a partner who edits documentaries and a cat who tolerates the camera cabinet. I photograph slowly, mostly at night, mostly on foot, mostly on either a small rangefinder or a mirrorless body with one fixed lens. I write these journal essays on quiet Sundays when I’m not out on a walk.

This journal is an independent project. There is no publisher and no sponsor. I don’t sell tickets and I don’t sell photographs from these pages (my printed work goes through a small gallery in Tokyo unrelated to this site). There are no advertisements, no affiliate links, and no analytics that would give me useful numbers even if I wanted them.

A few things this journal is not

• It is not an operator page. The museums and galleries I photograph have not asked me to write this and would probably fix a few of my honest criticisms if they had.
• It is not a ticket seller. I have never sold a ticket in my life and I don’t process payments. If a page anywhere pretending to be me tries to take a card, it isn’t me.
• It is not sponsored. Sponsored posts are the fastest way to lose a photographer’s judgement about light, so I’ve stayed away.
• It is not comprehensive. I only write about places I’ve been to at least three times. Some of Tokyo’s most photographed spaces aren’t here yet because I’m still learning them.

Gear notes, for readers who ask

I shoot on two bodies: an old Leica M6 for film (usually HP5 pushed to 1600 for night work, sometimes Portra 800 or CineStill 800) and a Sony A7III for digital when the shot needs a longer exposure than I trust my hands to hold. Two lenses: a 35mm and a 50mm. Nothing else. I would rather learn the two lenses than own a bag of them.

Thank you for reading. If you write in through the contact page I will get back to you.

— J.L.