Tomoki Imai remembers well the turning point in his life when he decided to become a professional photographer. Already an aspiring film director at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the Hiroshima-native was turned onto the raw and trigger-happy cityscape and portrait snapshots of self-styled photo "genius" Nobuyoshi Araki.
"Some of the photos just looked plain ordinary and not even pretty," recalls Imai, 37. "And I thought wow, that's just great."
But unlike the flamboyant, outspoken media guru that inspired Imai (and generations of other wannabe-photographers at the height of the late-'90s digital-camera boom), Imai unleashed his equally eccentric creative drive with a much more low-key approach, capturing almost purposely, it seems, only the most conceivably mundane objects of daily life, be it trees, automobiles, concrete walls, forests or empty roads.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.