Luminance of Streets

Luminance of Streets is Haruto Hoshi's first photobook. It's a collection of monochrome photographs of people living in the night streets and urban landscapes, primarily in Shinjuku and Kabukicho, as well as Yokohama and Kamagasaki in Osaka.

Hoshi, who was drawn to walking the night streets even before he picked up a camera, became devoted to photography in his mid-20s. He studied at the Modern Photography Institute and, after graduating in 2000, began working as a freelancer. This book compiles photographs from those early activities.

The portraits, taken at close range, combine the improvisation of a snapshot with a sense of tension. Through streets, bars, alleys, and people's expressions and gestures, the book captures multiple emotions such as loneliness, intimacy, violence, and absurdity floating in the entertainment district. This is a collection that marks the starting point of Hoshi's street photography, where he doesn't just observe the city from the outside, but immerses himself in it and forms relationships with its people.

[Title] 街の火 / Luminance of Streets
[Publisher] GALERIA Q
[Publication Date] May 14, 2007 (First Edition, First Printing)
[Page Count] 156 pages
[Size] Approx. 210 x 296 x 12mm / 567g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese, English
[Title Reading] MACHI NO HI
[Author/Editor, etc.] Haruto Hoshi / Author, Shinichi Ito / Production/Editing, Toru Shimizu / Design
[Printing/Binding] Taiyo Printing Industry / Printing/Binding
[ISBN] 9784903141039
[Condition] Used [7] Very Good (Slight corner fold)
[Accessories] None
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibition] 2007 "Luminance of Streets" PLACE M (Tokyo)

Haruto Hoshi (born 1970)

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1970, Haruto Hoshi is a photographer.

He began photography in the late 1990s, focusing on street photography with themes of alleyways in entertainment districts and urban nightscapes. In 1997, he studied under Takeshi Sato, and in 1998, he enrolled in the Modern Photography Institute. After graduating in 2000, he began working as a freelancer.

He has continuously photographed Shinjuku's Kabukicho, Yokohama, and Nishinari in Osaka. In 2007, he published his first photobook, Machi no Hi (GALERIA Q), and in 2008, he held the "Luminance of Streets" exhibition at Gallery OneTwentyEight in New York. Since then, he has continued to present works on the theme of cities and the people who live in them.

In 2017, he published the photobook Kuchibue with Little Big Man, and received the Photo Society Award for the same work in 2018. In 2023, he was selected for the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum's "New Japanese Photography Vol. 20: Leap Before You Look," where he exhibited multiple series, including new works, reflecting on his activities up to that point.

His photobooks include Machi no Hi (2007), Kuchibue (2017), Shinjuku 1999–2008 (2024), Tokyo Trippy (2025), and Nishinari (2025). His works are housed in the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.

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