Capturing Japan through its lonely vending machines (The Japan Times)
I wrote this feature on photographer Eiji Ohashi, whose work employs Japan’s ubiquitous vending machines as metaphors for an atomised society in which employment and living standards are becoming increasingly precarious. For Ohashi, Japan’s countless, ever more sophisticated vending machines are also emblematic of a pursuit of convenience that has gone too far. This story went viral, becoming one of The Japan Times’ most ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ articles of 2017, and being picked up by global media including the BBC, CNN, and Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.
(Print and online, July 2017)