Rooftop Photos of Tokyo at Night

Photographer Austin Hou visited Tokyo a number of times between 2017 and 2018 and spent his nights rooftopping and photographing the city from above.

Here’s what Hou says about the series:

My strongest memory from the first time I stepped into Tokyo was the feeling of being struck by the sheer scale and density of the place. That feeling never left me, and I became fascinated with understanding it. I visited time and time again to immerse myself in the intricate balance between order and chaos that felt so unique to the place.

It’s difficult to really understand a place that’s so immersive with so many layers. I realized that to even attempt to understand a place like Tokyo, I needed to explore its fringes – experiences far removed from the tourist circuit. This sparked a long series of explorations of the city: of its back alleys, its far reaches, and its curiosities. It wasn’t until my seventh of eighth time back, when my explorations led me upwards, that I found some of what I had been looking for. On the rooftops of Tokyo I witnessed a canopy unfold like no city I’d ever visited — an infinite three-dimensional landscape that resembled more closely a rainforest than anything remotely human.

“ukiyo vertigo” is a result of these explorations. Ukiyo refers to the “floating world” era of Japanese thought, and the Ukiyo-e art style that accompanied it. The illusory, removed, and profoundly temporary nature of the “transitory world” that it examined resonated with me in those long, endless nights above the city.