My walking companions

In my first weeks in Japan, not having a job, I took advantage of this free time to discover, browse and get lost in the different districts of Tokyo. Photography is always a good excuse for a walk, meeting people, and getting lost. The camera protects from shyness in exchange with others. Japan was still in the Heisei era, the DSLR was hegemonic king in its kingdom and our photo bags were heavy. This candid pleasure of walking in a new city, the biggest in the world, where pictures are popping up everywhere asking to be taken as a personal souvenir of a new discovery experience, or even as a moment of life to be documented. From the small streets of Yanaka to the blinding light of Shibuya at night, the photographic walk in Tokyo is a real pleasure for any enthusiast of this medium. From the old Edo to Tokyo, this city is always in motion: old buildings are replaced by new titanic glass tower projects, streets are redesigned to offer a new living space to the residents. The photographer’s playground is always changing.

The mirrorless cameras arrived, first timidly, then in force. Nine years, traveling through this city with a mirrorless camera and these three SIGMA lenses gives all its meaning to the photographic wanderings. A small body accompanied by lenses of the right size, without sacrificing either the quality of construction or the optical quality, make them the ideal companions for my walks. I am surprised! For their size and weight, these three lenses deliver surprising image quality, from the full open aperture the image is sharp, with nice color rendering. Tokyo is a fast-moving city, always on the move, and these three Contemporary lenses have never failed me with their AF performance.

I am often asked a difficult question: ”what is the best camera for me, for my practice?” I like to answer that the best camera is the one you can always have with you.

With these three small lenses, it is easy to take your camera and go for a walk, the three different focal lengths between 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm allow a wide range of framing possibilities in the streets of Tokyo. The design of these three lenses, with their light weight, and a pleasant feel in the hand, are perfectly adapted to the Fujifilm cameras. The size of the three lenses offer a small footprint ideal for walking and street photography.

This city changes between day and night, the atmosphere, the sound is different; and the F1.4 aperture allows you to play with this atmosphere which is specific to the megalopolis. With these three lenses and their size, I inevitably think of Nicolas Bouvier, traveler-writer and talented photographer, a pioneer to have photographed Tokyo in the 50’s for the French audience. If Mr Bouvier were to come back to Japan, I would think of him walking through the streets of Tokyo with these three lenses. Not to be constrained by the material is to be ready to be surprised by our environment. Nicolas Bouvier expressed my idea of the photographic wanderer thusly: “It is the characteristic of great travelers to bring back anything other than what we went looking for.” (Original: C’est le propre des longs voyages que d’en ramener tout autre chose que ce qu’on y est allé chercher.)

With these three lenses, the SIGMA 16mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary allows me to take the “band” of monsters on the slopes of Mount Zao. The SIGMA 30mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary, close to the focal lengths I use most often, reacts perfectly to what I see and the SIGMA 56mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary is perfect for the portrait of monsters or smaller details because the story is often also told in the details. I know that the quality of the three lenses are promising in visual outcome, mechanical operation and build quality.