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Distorted, Yet Beautiful
Masaaki Toyoyoshi’s Hallucination City, Tokyo offers a glimpse into a world shaped by altered perception. As a visually impaired photographer, Toyoyoshi translates his own experience of sight, one affected by glaucoma and marked by distortions, depth confusion, and light sensitivity into striking photographic compositions. Through multiple exposure techniques, he reconstructs Tokyo as he perceives it, allowing viewers to step into a version of the city that exists outside conventional vision.
The resulting images are layered, fragmented, and surreal. Buildings seem to merge with neon lights, streets blur into a haze of overlapping forms, and the urban landscape takes on a dreamlike intensity. This photographic method does not merely mimic impairment but transforms it into an artistic language, making the invisible distortions of his vision something tangible.
By capturing his unique way of seeing, Toyoyoshi challenges the idea that visual impairment limits creativity. Instead, he demonstrates how perception, however altered can still be a source of compelling imagery.
In this series, Tokyo becomes an alternate reality. Structures stretch and dissolve, colors shift unpredictably, and light sources blend into ghostly auras. The ordinary rules of perspective and scale are abandoned, reflecting how depth perception becomes unstable for Toyoyoshi. These images do not adhere to the precision of traditional photography but instead convey the unpredictability of his daily experience. They invite viewers to step into his world, where clarity is elusive, and the city transforms with every glance.
By reconstructing his environment through multiple exposures, Toyoyoshi shifts the conversation around photography and visual impairment. His work reveals that even when sight is altered, artistic vision remains intact. Instead of attempting to correct or compensate for his condition, he embraces it as a source of creativity.
His Tokyo is not one of sharp edges and defined spaces but of shifting realities and unexpected juxtapositions.
This photographic series challenges common perceptions of both vision and creativity. Rather than seeing impairment as a limitation, Toyoyoshi demonstrates how his unique experience of sight shapes an artistic perspective that would not otherwise exist. The city he captures is not broken or incomplete as it is a different kind of Tokyo, one that shifts and unfolds through his eyes.
Credits
Entry Title: Hallucination City, Tokyo
Photographer: Masaaki Toyoyoshi
Winning Category: International Photography - Japan Photography
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