54
LI A M WONG
Modus operandi
Wong went freelance in March
2019 but before that, even when he
was working full-time in Canada, he
was visiting Tokyo around three
times a year. He recalls, ‘Every day
I would take pictures. I’d go on
Google Maps, look at every alley and
just start flagging them looking for
something that was cool, like wires
going in a certain direction. I would
then just list them all and walk
around for four to six hours.’
Wong admits that his work
initially met with some resistance.
‘I think the biggest challenge is that
photography is very elitist. That was
always the barrier for me. Back then
Flickr was huge and I remember just
thinking, “If I put this on Flickr
someone’s going to point out that
my ISO is wrong, I used the wrong
lens or I missed the focus on the
person”. People are like that. The
most challenging part was trying to
be accepted.’
He openly admits that some of his
earlier work wasn’t always in focus
but he believes it’s sometimes more
about conveying a mood than being
100% technically adroit. Wong
explains, ‘I had shots when the focus
was slightly off but does it matter?
Probably not – the same feeling is
there. That’s why I look at
photographers like Saul Leiter
because of his ability to capture
mood. It doesn’t matter if it’s
blurred, grainy or something is out
of focus – it’s intentionally out of
focus because he’s an incredible
photographer.’
He adds, ‘I don’t really refer to
myself as a photographer. My
Instagram says ‘artist’. At what point
does a photo stop being a
photograph? I don’t know... there’s
a whole other conversation there.
But it’s interesting being in that
position where a lot of people look
at your stuff and they’re all going to
have an opinion. But the book’s
done well. I’ve no complaints.’Publishing a book
The book Wong is referring to is
TO:KY:OO, which initially came out
in a huge, two-kilogramme volume
during 2019. It came about after he
approached a number of photo book
publishers, with Thames & Hudson
being the publisher that bought into
the project. The tome quickly sold
out and a smaller, more digestible,
paperback version made its
debut in November 2020.‘TO:KY:OO’
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