Photography > Tsukiji

"It's hard to detail all the things that make the finger-like docks and chain-smoking fishermen so remarkable [at the Tsukiji Central Fish Market]. Maybe it's the squeak of rubber boots or the scent of the river or the idea that a fish is sold here every four seconds. Whatever the reason for its tough goodness, Tsukiji as we've known it will probably be gone or greatly altered by your next visit [it is relocating to more modern buildings with computers which will supposed to make it "more efficient", by 2012], so you might want to make a point of stopping by." ...so says the Lonely Planet Tokyo guide.
I couldn't resist, and in fact decided that it would be the central part of the next section of "Everything Beautiful and Lofty"! While the fishmarket would only be one-third of the finished film, the still images that I gathered there encompass an entire world of their own. From the iridescent colors of the inert array of fish to the early-morning workaday simplicity of those who are employed there, the moments of clarity abound.
I knew that there would be wonderful opportunities to utilize the quality of transparencies in the variety of colors and viscous liquids in the fishmarket, and Agfa's now discontinued slide film has the strongest color representation, so it was a natural choice. However, getting those unique qualities of reversal film enlarged onto paper posed a problem. After considering a few different options, printing onto metallic paper was the only route that made any sense. The gloss and inherent sheen of that paper gives the perfect foil for these unique images.