**Lukasz Palka**

**Curious Street Photography**

Photography was an avenue for me to explore the city

My name is Lukasz Kazimierz Palka and I have been living in Tokyo, Japan since 2008. I got into photography as a way to get out of the house. After about 1 year in Japan, I found myself becoming a bit of a couch potato. Photography was an avenue for me to explore the city.

Since I live in one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world, I do not need to travel much. I simply explore Tokyo, often revisiting locations again and again. I find myself taking some photos over and over in search of a perfect iteration.
To find the rooftop locations that are often in my photos, I spend a lot of time walking around the city and climbing lots of staircases. It’s a matter of persistence and patience.

My advice is to be curious and keep at it. If you haven’t been to some part of the city: go there. If you’re city is friendly to walking: then walk. Shooting in the city is all about exploration. It’s about expanding your internal map of your city. There is no special need to travel to distant lands to get started. Any city will do. So, get a good pair of shoes and get out there!

"Which approach is better? Well, this is a wrong question in the Zen sense. Neither approach is right or wrong. Instead, the question we have to ask ourselves as photographers is this: what do I want to photograph, and what story do I want to tell?"

In 2024 I traveled to Bodø, Norway for a street photography assignment. I was tasked with photographing the city any way that I desired. To be honest, having so little direction made the task appear quite daunting.

Having absolute creative freedom leaves so many options, so many open avenues, that one can become lost in the maze of choices and make no real progress.

But luckily, from experience, I knew if I just put in the time, and more importantly the steps, images would come. Street photography is like trying to fight with the wind on a stormy beach. It’s easier to just let go and allow the wind to carry you where it wills.

So, I let the metaphorical wind carry me…. all around the town, on the outskirts, up a nearby mountain, along the rocky coastline, through the harbor, into various locales, and on and on. Along the way I met some interesting people and inevitably found the fascinating scenes I was searching for.

As the week went on and I got to know the lay of the land my own picture and understanding of the city and its denizens emerged as though from a fog. I certainly don’t know everything about Bodø, but now I feel a sort of kinship with the town itself in a way that one does when meeting a fellow traveler and sharing the journey for some time before parting ways again at a crossroads, perhaps to meet again someday.

Lukasz Palka – € 29,90 | $ 45 | £ 19,95. – pag 208 – Format 22 x 22 cm | 8 3/5 x 8 3/5 in.

Sidewalks are suitable for walkers. They are very crowded places. The footprints quickly vanish without leaving any trace. The flaneur traces their paths elsewhere. They wander between the narrow streets and the city's buildings; immersed in tranquillity, he walks in silence. Zig-zagging through the people, searching for a glimpse of light in urban chaos. Then, stepping off the sidewalk, looking for a story to tell.

Seven artists, each presenting six photographic artworks, all of them telling one personal meandering story of theirs from Tokyo.

Duration

Jan 15th ~ Feb 17th 2023