3.1 PHILLIP LIM as seen by JIRO KONAMI

vi·bra·tion: a person’s emotional state, the atmosphere of a place, or the associations of an object, as communicated to and felt by others.

New York City has always been known for its diversity in stimuli – everything and everywhere all at once. The city’s iconic gallery scene is the harmonizer that incubates culture – blank canvases that invite us to dream and create inspiring dialogue to forward society. This celebration of creativity is a universal language spoken across every corner of the city, inherited from past generations, and guiding the next.

VIDEO/EDIT by RYOSUKE TANZAWA and MUSIC by IT-XPO

“We are showing up differently this time. New York is constantly changing, constantly reinventing itself. So for New York Fashion Week, we knew we would do that too. This is a moment to bring communities together, to show the collaboration of different views, the tension of two opposing forces; two creative disciplines. That barter in the middle is where the magic happens.”

- PHILLIP LIM

“Consistently putting oneself into the non-stop environment that is defined by a variety of gender, nationality, color of the streets and chaos, I can feel the desire of New York City. The same could be said of Tokyo, where I grew up, yet ultimately the two are completely different. Even after years of being here, there are so many questions about New York that are left unanswered. My dialogue with the city is ongoing. To take one picture is discovering your one desire and transform it into objectivization. This creates one's own point of view and I believe you can open the universe in cultivating a perspective.

Shooting the city everyday over several years, I can feel the unchanged change in NY by small degrees. As we can see the shift from the photographs of NY or Tokyo 20 years ago, so too we will see it in the future. For this reason, I believe that documenting the present is vital. The ephemerality of each moment will never reappear. Our everyday lives are a series of miracles and the universality we feel is fleeting. What we may see as mundane and consistent will quickly change and never be the same again. I can feel the weight of these changes physically and mentally. The camera acts as a tool to help me capture this even when my eyes do not immediately see it. Everyday I aspire to take photographs that exist at the intersection of fantasy + reality working to amplify both universes. This convergence allows me to deepen the meaning of my photographs speaking to the universality of transience.”

– JIRO KONAMI

Jiro Konami is a Japanese photographer based in New York. Konami’s work is a homage to and departure from the old masters of Japanese photography. The artist’s subject matter ranges from portrait studies and still lives to glittering cityscapes. Characterized by vivid hues and bright flares of light, each frame conveys speed and precision attributed to the artist’s practice of determining what to shoot in an instant. Konami’s collaboration with 3.1 Phillip Lim will showcase humanity, atmospheric elements and a distillation of the essence of the New York spirit – an immersive, emotional visual display.

Unable to makeit? Join us virtually and get a front row view and behind the scenes access by following us on Instagram at @31philliplim.