If you're anything like me, who look for inspiration in photo books, then I think you'll like “Friction / Tokyo Street, from Tatsuo Suzuki and published by Steidl.

When I think about street photography, emotions become a recurring theme. There's lots of “types” of street photography (even with no people at all), but capturing beautiful emotional scenes is what makes my heart beat goes up. And since the beginning of last year, with the COVID outbreak, it has become more difficult to capture such moments, because there are fewer people on the streets and the ones who's there are wearing a mask.

Walking on a busy street, looking for these moments is like fishing (I never did it though): you're just navigating through a calm river, moving with the flow, and suddenly this moments just happens in a split second, like a fish popping out of water, and you have to be prepared to capture it.

Or, if you're like Tatsuo Suzuki, you just take these emotions out of your subjects by “subtle force”.

His so called controversial way of shooting; getting very close with a quick move, causes all kind of reactions and these reactions become visible through his subject’s eyes. Fear, surprise, laughter, anger, it's all there, just in that minimal fraction of time.

Somehow, I think his work is like a manifest, or even a direct criticism to Japanese Society and the always present Honne/Tatemae (like “real feelings” x “poker face” kind of thing) conflict. Speaking in a very metaphorical way, his photos are like a wake up call. It's his way of screaming in our faces: “You have feelings, you are alive!”

For me, that’s the brilliance of it.