One of Japan’s largest urban photography festivals has returned to Tokyo. Now in its seventh year and running until October 27, T3 Photo Festival Tokyo is being held at multiple venues across Yaesu, Nihonbashi, Kyobashi and Ginza.
This year’s edition features works by photographic legend Stephen Shore, internationally acclaimed contemporary photographers Melissa Schriek and Stephen Gill, and a retrospective on the history of Japanese women photographers through photo books that include works by Mayumi Suzuki, among many others.
The festival transforms the city itself into an exhibition space, inviting passersby to stop and engage with photography in everyday urban settings.
One of the main pillars of the festival is the ‘City as Garden’ exhibition, featuring works by three photographers across three office venues. For example, Tokyo Midtown Yaesu is showcasing print works by Stephen Shore, a leading figure in the ‘New Color’ photography movement in the United States and noted for his vivid depictions of everyday American life.
Shore’s work includes his experimental postcard-based 1971 series Greeting from Amarillo,“Tall in Texas”, in which the format of postcards is elevated into an art form, and his American Surfaces series released the following year, considered a precursor to today’s casual travel snapshots.
Shore challenged the conventions of art photography at the time – when monochrome large-format prints were the standard – by blurring the lines between snapshots and art, treating everyday moments with the same care as precious art pieces.
A short distance away on foot, Tokyo Tatemono Yaesu Building hosts the work of Dutch photographer Melissa Schriek, whose series Ode stages two women posing freely in public spaces. While resembling fashion photography at first glance, the images express a subtle assertion of presence and rights, treating the urban environment as a performance space.
At the nearby Tokyo Tatemono Nihonbashi Building, look for the exhibit of Stephen Gill’s Hackney Flowers (2007) in the main entrance lobby. Gill’s process is experimental, incorporating burying prints in soil or collaging organic materials atop prints and re-photographing them.
For this exhibition, Gill’s works are printed on washi paper dyed using traditional mud dyeing techniques from Amami Oshima. These produce deep, earthy tones that allow the colours to emerge unexpectedly.
In the Kyobashi area, Tomohiko Yoshino Gallery is hosting T3 New Talent ‘Five Views’, an exhibition of works by five artists selected via a competition that highlights emerging photographers, including Mayumi Suzuki (as pictured above). Meanwhile, Tokyo Square Garden nearby is hosting “Visions of Japanese Women Photographers Seen in Photobooks” from I’m So Happy You Are Here (2024), an exhibition that brings together photographic works by Japanese women active since the 1950s. These works grapple with powerful themes such as the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, gender and society.
Coinciding with the T3 Photo Festival, from October 11 to 13, T3 Photo Asia is taking over floors 4 and 5 of Tokyo Midtown Yaesu, with around 20 galleries based in Asia presenting works that visitors can purchase on the spot.
The city-wide festival runs through October 27. More information can be found on the official website.
More from Time Out Tokyo
Here’s the official 2025 forecast for autumn leaves in Japan – updated
8 cool shops and restaurants to check out at the newly opened Newoman Takanawa
3 Tokyo bars named in the World's 50 Best Bars 2025 list
40,000 kochia bushes are now growing at Hitachi Seaside Park near Tokyo
Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo’s Sea of Clouds installation features a magical full moon