In 1983 Shunji Dodo, who up until then focused entirely on Osaka in his photography, was invited by Japan-based American movie maker Byron Black to visit Bangkok together: “Bangkokʼs an interesting city, just like Osaka. Letʼs head over there together.” In the following 35 years, Dodo has photographed the city with his beloved Rollei camera. This book consists of a selection of 291 images.

Thanks to Yoshihisa Tanakaʼs editing and art direction, time and space become an abstraction in the book. The book measures 225 × 225 × 33 mm, the perfect size to match Dodoʼs 6x6 medium-format photographs. The sides of the book have been silkscreen-printed, and the sense of presence of the book together with Dodoʼs brilliant photographs let the reader delve into another world from the first turn of the page.

A City Aglow is a warm, dizzying, up-close and overwhelming portrait of Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok, photographed by Japanese street-photographer Shunji Dodo during numerous visits between the mid-1980s and 2019. Drawing parallels to his experiences of downtown Osaka during his childhood after the war, Dodo became fascinated by Bangkok and the warmth, liveliness and ingenuity of its residents. Focusing on a single city, Dodo’s A City Aglow provides an encompassing, unweary look at life’s universal force to continue, no matter the circumstances.

A City Aglow includes an extensive afterword by Shunji Dodo as well as a short essay by Tate Senior Curator Yasufumi Nakamori in Japanese and English translation.