After Dark

by Liam Wong

No matter how different or far apart, cities at night share particular features: neon lights and lonely figures, quiet train stations and taxi drivers, empty buildings and streets. In After Dark, Liam Wong encounters the people and places, the slivers of life, that move differently in this time, weaving these fine threads into an insomniac’s through the night.

Following his de´but monograph, TO:KY:OO, which captured Tokyo’s nocturnal beauty Wong widens his lens from the city that became his spiritual and photographic muse to Osaka and Kyoto, London and Seoul, Paris and Rome. But he goes further still, seeking the rich tapestries of nightlife in the foggy historical streets of his hometown Edinburgh, penetrating the backstreets of the megacity Chongqing, and seizing the verticality of Hong Kong from its rooftops.

Through his previous work as a videogame designer, Wong learned that “real life is just as potent, bizarre and interesting as things we can imagine.” Through sleepless and solitary nights, Liam Wong explores the phenomenon of loneliness in city life, capturing urban interstices between dusk and dawn: the eerie emptiness of London’s Piccadilly Circus at 4:00 am, Seoul’s late-night taxi drivers moving along hushed roads, two birds sharing the warmth of a neon sign in Hong Kong’s TSM District, a salaryman waiting on an empty subway platform in Tokyo’s Akihabara district in front of the world‘s largest electronic store—mysterious silhouettes representing lives lived in shadow, portrayed as intricate, cinematic visions, all before the sun rises. 

Genres: Photography, Art, Japan, Nonfiction, Art and Photography

176 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Hilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know all the homies are going to see this on your coffee table and go “damnnnnnnnn”

[Adriii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Después de TO:KY:O, me preguntaba cómo afrontaría Liam Wong este segundo trabajo, ya que el primero era tan personal y contaba un viaje en sí mismo. En este caso, el gran valor es el concepto y Liam consigue atraparte en esos paseos de madrugada en los que capturaba las ciudades nocturnas, durmientes. Me gusta particularmente cómo juega con el formato del propio libro; la encuadernación es espectacular, y echa mano de desplegables en lo horizontal y lo vertical para jugar con la perspectiva. Ganas del siguiente!

[Sougeitu · Rating 3 out of 5]

因為書裡有中文所以我就用中文寫書評了。為了表達支持我甚至買了這本攝影集的簽名版，我現在發誓我絕對不會再在沒看內容之前就買任何簽名版的書了……

這本書的攝影內容很棒，但其糟糕的出版裝幀設計足以掩蓋照片的優秀：大量的照片跨頁讓閱讀變得極為困難，重要的照片信息被夾在書縫裡。數張相同內容的照片在一個跨頁裡面被展示，需要把書顛來倒去才能閱讀（考慮到這是一本hardcover攝影集，這並不能讓人覺得驚喜）。此外本書犯了一個名為解釋笑話的錯誤，在大量需要讓讀者品味的圖像前找人使用了文字進行說明與書寫，你可以在本書許多照片前找到“這景象讓我想起了某某導演拍攝的某某作品，這張照片想表達的是什麼什麼”這樣的說明文字，讓我幾乎以為自己不是在看一本能讓人遐想與身臨其境的攝影集，而是在聽畢業生作品答辯。
不過好在這些內容在1/3的內容後基本沒有了，後面的照片恢復了TO:KO:YO一書中沒有解釋的純粹攝影。這讓觀感變得優秀許多，但仍然，前面的糟糕閱讀體驗無法在後2/3得到緩解。
本書中照片排列的形式是以主題進行分類的，中日韓英等多個地區的照片被糅雜在一起，並且彼此之間沒有設計語言上的關係，使閱讀體驗變得極為跳脫。

照片4/5，設計1/5。

[Noctua · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own this book and his previous book, TO:KY:OO. Compared with his previous book, his works in this book are more mature and have a more cinematic quality. As a native Hongkonger who is also very familiar with Tokyo, I love his commentary on the two cities, and I also agree with his choices in scenic spots. Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View is not well-known among foreigners, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him recommending that spot in the book.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it cheating if I count this as a book I read??? I loved Liam Wong's TO:KY:OO so I asked for this one for Christmas. As Wong demonstrates in his stunning shots, there is something so magical about cities at night...

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strikingly beautiful, I was a bit confused by the layout at first but it really grew on me. Highly recommend.

[Elijah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book with stunning images throughout. I have it on my coffee table and already had people ask about it.

[M.R.W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An outstanding photographer with another piece of outstanding work! The pages are alive the photos tell a story every time

[Alex Arasawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good inspiration for dark street photography.

[kavya · Rating 3 out of 5]

more organized and layered than his last book, with beautiful photos throughout.

[Francesco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liam Wong is one of my favorite photographers and the layout of this book is one of its strongest aspects. This opus, unlike its predecessor, expands Liam's vision outside Japan to focus on other asian and european cities, including Paris and Rome. The images Wong's work depict look like acrylic paintings and express something deep and very subtle that words can't describe.