Exhausted Tokyo: Adrian Storey’s Photos Of Public Sleepers
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Today, working from nine to five seems like a pipe dream, as work days continually get longer and people inject caffeine every few hours just to function. It’s pretty common to see people dozing off on public transport, but it’s rare to see a person catching some z’s on a city sidewalk. Photographer Adrian Storey’s amazing photo-series titled Let the Poets Cry Themselves to Sleep photographed various Tokyo professionals sleeping in unusual places.
We’re not sure about the title of the series, as these people look more like “yuppies” than poets, but there is plenty of Shakespearean drama sprinkled within this photo-series. Did the woman swoon onto the sidewalk? Why is no one helping her? How did that man end up in a small garden? These questions leave us puzzled and perhaps even a bit concerned. This is our reality, after all. A world filled with the over-worked, under-nourished, Ambien-dependent professionals who are more like machines than human beings. We give kudos to our Japanese brethren for their shameless use of public space to catch up on sleepy time. If only we could fall asleep while stuck in rush-hour traffic.
Sure we might be “busy,” but it seems that the Japanese are even more overworked. Think about Storey’s photos next time you find yourself complaining about your work day. From the funny pictures (a man sleeping over a railing) to the downright troubling (a woman passed out on a busy footpath), Storey’s photos are a commentary about perpetual exhaustion that plagues our world. We all need a vacation.
