Amidst the global Covid-19 pandemic I have become, like many, isolated in one residence with very limited human contact. This shift into a reclusive behaviour has made me reconsider how one environment affects your experience of isolation, leading to the conclusion, made by many before me, that isolation is a transferable quality and is not bound by any location.
You carry isolation with you, from place to place, choosing where and when you reflect upon it. However, I do not believe that the concept of isolation is limited to just one’s internal decision. An environment can amplify the feeling of loneliness and disconnect, emotions I felt during my time spent in Tokyo. Emotions that I have only realised whilst reviewing my archive.
The edit presented here in ‘Orient in Passing’ (2020) performs the relationship between city infrastructure and isolation, by visually exploring my despondency in retrospect. During my stay, I was in a dark emotional space, which on reflection, has manifested itself within my images through my focus on the underexposed gloom of architecture. As well as exploring my own emotional space through the images I wanted to represent the intense feeling I had, of what could be described as industrial claustrophobia, resulting in a lack of natural spaces and living spaces in the city.
By centering on the expanse of social isolation between the citizens of Tokyo, it was easy to observe the way in which many people kept to themselves. This in itself created a very lonely atmosphere and was something I could not overlook. It is not to say the city is not vibrant and friendly, it is just not how I experienced it because of the way I wanted to see the city.
Even after all this re-interpretation, something seemed to still, be missing.
This is where I introduced the use of text, in an attempt to suggest to the viewer feelings of panic and confinement. The title “Orient in Passing” shows that I no longer see the experience from the outside, I instead relate to the time as something that will pass, just as my feelings have.
Whether it be positive or negative just remember that it will pass.
