Kyoto Journal is an English language publication coming out of Kyoto. To mark its 70th issue Kyoto Journal has looked locally at its birthplace; Kyoto. I showed the founding editor John Einarsen some of my previous work documenting city streets in Vancouver and he thought something like this might work in issue 70.
I was new to Kyoto at the time (this was last November) so I started to look for locations right away. I had little idea of what Kyoto was like beyond the tourist spots I've seen before. Kyoto is the city of temples; there is no mention of being the city of convenience stores or renovated cafés. I went out many times to either look or to photograph. Each week I told John "I'm almost finished, I just have to shoot one more building and stitch it in." Well, that week kept repeating. By April I had to attach a tripod holder to my scooter so I could get around. I went from hypothermia in the winter to heat-stroke in the summer but I was still shooting.
A few weeks before the magazine went to press John was still calm and patient with me. I kept promising to finish but John said, "I have a few more places I want to show you." He took me on a tour of some spots that don't have tour bus parking like Kurodani Temple (黒谷寺). By this point I was using a bicycle to get around more slowly and I found even more hidden locations.
Well, sometime in July I finished the image. It includes images from November to July with over 70 layers of buildings and people. It isn't "straight" documentary where each snapshot would have be considered a separate image, it's edited like a film into a one coherent strip about 2 meters long. It wraps around from the back cover to the front and the first few pages in.
The final eight page image before text was added.
I was new to Kyoto at the time (this was last November) so I started to look for locations right away. I had little idea of what Kyoto was like beyond the tourist spots I've seen before. Kyoto is the city of temples; there is no mention of being the city of convenience stores or renovated cafés. I went out many times to either look or to photograph. Each week I told John "I'm almost finished, I just have to shoot one more building and stitch it in." Well, that week kept repeating. By April I had to attach a tripod holder to my scooter so I could get around. I went from hypothermia in the winter to heat-stroke in the summer but I was still shooting.
An early mock-up of the cover image for KJ.
A few weeks before the magazine went to press John was still calm and patient with me. I kept promising to finish but John said, "I have a few more places I want to show you." He took me on a tour of some spots that don't have tour bus parking like Kurodani Temple (黒谷寺). By this point I was using a bicycle to get around more slowly and I found even more hidden locations.
Well, sometime in July I finished the image. It includes images from November to July with over 70 layers of buildings and people. It isn't "straight" documentary where each snapshot would have be considered a separate image, it's edited like a film into a one coherent strip about 2 meters long. It wraps around from the back cover to the front and the first few pages in.
I worked for the 
