新幹線 (SHINKANSEN)

Train journeys offer a unique and often overlooked perspective on place, one that bypasses the curated facades of cities and instead reveals their raw, unpolished edges. To arrive by train is to enter through the tradesman’s entrance: a procession of factories, junkyards, and forgotten wastelands. It is also an invitation to glimpse, almost voyeuristically, into the private lives of others, through the back gardens of suburban homes or the balconies of high-rise apartments. There is a quiet paradox in this: a public mode of transport offering such intimate, unglamorous views.

In April 2025, I travelled aboard Japan’s Shinkansen (bullet train), first from Tokyo to Kyoto, then from Osaka back to Tokyo a week later. Moving at up to 320 kilometres per hour and covering a combined distance of almost 1,000 kilometres, the whole journey lasted just under five hours. This experience, defined by velocity and brevity, resonated deeply with the themes of uncertainty and contingency that underpin my photographic practice and my research developing a framework for considering the relativistic nature of space and time in photography.

Below is a small selection of images from 新幹線 (SHINKANSEN), a book is currently in development.