Shintaro Sato "Faces of the City"
Fugensha
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Shintaro Sato
Fugensha is pleased to present Shintaro Sato’s solo exhibition City Portraits, which will be held from Friday, November 28 to Thursday, December 25, 2025. This exhibition commemorates the publication of Sato’s new photobook City Portraits (published by Fugensha).
Born in Tokyo in 1969, Shintaro Sato is a photographer. He graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography in 1992, and in 1995, he graduated from the School of Literature I at Waseda University. After he became a staff photographer at Kyodo News, and in 2002, he began working as a freelance photographer. His work explores the genius loci—the spirit or atmosphere unique to a place—capturing, through photography, the layers of history and human activity that accumulate within the city. Among his representative works is the series Tokyo Twilight Zone (Seigensha), in which he photographed Tokyo from emergency staircases—a viewpoint between the pedestrian and from the sky at dusk. He was rewarded with the Newcomer’s Award from the Japan Photographic Society in 2009. Another major series, Risen in the East (Seigensha) which documents the construction of the Tokyo Skytree from multiple perspectives, and received the Hayashi Tadahiko Award in 2012.
Sato’s new photobook, City Portraits, spans his entire career from 1990 to 2025, featuring eight series. It includes works previously published in books —Geography (1992), Night Lights (1997–1999), Tokyo Twilight Zone (2002–2008), Risen in the East (2008–2016), and The Origin of Tokyo (2016–2017)— as well as early and unpublished works — Flat City (1990), created while Sato was a student at photography school; Streetscapes (1999–2002), which captures the urban landscape in bright sunlight; and his latest and unreleased series Boundaries (2019 onwards). The exhibition will feature 21 works selected from all eight series.
Throughout his career, Sato has incorporated the latest technologies of each time period, selecting the most suitable method according to his subjects and themes. His expressive approach—ranging freely from straight photography to digital collage in which shows the practice of Sato has evolved with remarkable flexibility. In an essay written for the new photobook, photography critic Osamu Ueno describes Sato’s artistic practice as that of a “artisan.”
Moreover, the abstract visual correspondence between Sato’s early work Geography, which depicts reclaimed land along Tokyo Bay, and his latest series Boundaries — a digitally processed images of cliffs that once marked the boundary between sea and land, shows that Sato’s work does not progress in a linear fashion. Instead, different periods in his oeuvre interconnect in diverse and unexpected ways.
Moving between day and night, the figurative and the abstract, the visible and the invisible, Sato has pursued the City Portraits for thirty-five years. We invite you to experience this artistic journey through both his new photobook and the exhibition.
Born in Tokyo in 1969, Shintaro Sato is a photographer. He graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography in 1992, and in 1995, he graduated from the School of Literature I at Waseda University. After he became a staff photographer at Kyodo News, and in 2002, he began working as a freelance photographer. His work explores the genius loci—the spirit or atmosphere unique to a place—capturing, through photography, the layers of history and human activity that accumulate within the city. Among his representative works is the series Tokyo Twilight Zone (Seigensha), in which he photographed Tokyo from emergency staircases—a viewpoint between the pedestrian and from the sky at dusk. He was rewarded with the Newcomer’s Award from the Japan Photographic Society in 2009. Another major series, Risen in the East (Seigensha) which documents the construction of the Tokyo Skytree from multiple perspectives, and received the Hayashi Tadahiko Award in 2012.
Sato’s new photobook, City Portraits, spans his entire career from 1990 to 2025, featuring eight series. It includes works previously published in books —Geography (1992), Night Lights (1997–1999), Tokyo Twilight Zone (2002–2008), Risen in the East (2008–2016), and The Origin of Tokyo (2016–2017)— as well as early and unpublished works — Flat City (1990), created while Sato was a student at photography school; Streetscapes (1999–2002), which captures the urban landscape in bright sunlight; and his latest and unreleased series Boundaries (2019 onwards). The exhibition will feature 21 works selected from all eight series.
Throughout his career, Sato has incorporated the latest technologies of each time period, selecting the most suitable method according to his subjects and themes. His expressive approach—ranging freely from straight photography to digital collage in which shows the practice of Sato has evolved with remarkable flexibility. In an essay written for the new photobook, photography critic Osamu Ueno describes Sato’s artistic practice as that of a “artisan.”
Moreover, the abstract visual correspondence between Sato’s early work Geography, which depicts reclaimed land along Tokyo Bay, and his latest series Boundaries — a digitally processed images of cliffs that once marked the boundary between sea and land, shows that Sato’s work does not progress in a linear fashion. Instead, different periods in his oeuvre interconnect in diverse and unexpected ways.
Moving between day and night, the figurative and the abstract, the visible and the invisible, Sato has pursued the City Portraits for thirty-five years. We invite you to experience this artistic journey through both his new photobook and the exhibition.
Schedule Now in session | Nov 28 (Fri) 2025-Dec 25 (Thu) 2025 7 days left Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://fugensha.jp/events/251128sato/ | ||||
| Venue | Fugensha https://fugensha.jp/about/eng.html | ||||
| Location | 5-3-12 Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0064 | ||||
| Access | 17 minute walk from the West exit of Meguro Station on the Tokyu Meguro, Namboku, Toei Mita or JR Yamanote line; From the West exit of JR Meguro Station, take the Tokyu bus and get off at Moto Keibajo Mae. The venue is 1 minute walk from there. | ||||
| Phone | 03-6264-3665 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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