At first it’s not clear what you’re viewing. And once that becomes evident, a new question presents itself: how did he do it? As part of a series titled “Stainless” photographer Adam Magyar boarded a train and rode it into Shinjuku station, the world’s busiest train station. As his car approached the platform Maygar began filming – in super slow motion high speed* – footage of people waiting to board the train.
(*a facebook commenter corrected me: it’s actually high speed footage, not slow motion. The high speed camera captures the scene at an enormous number of frames pr. second, which, when played back at a normal frame rate, appears in extreme slow motion or is frozen in time.)
There is so much wonderfulness in this video, but perhaps it’s said best by the creator himself: “An endless row of living sculptures brought together by the same subway line, the same direction, the same intention of taking the train to get caught and carried away by the urban flow. All their motions slowed down, they are graceful and stainless, holding their breath waiting for their train to pull into the station.”
Adam Magyar, Stainless – Shinjuku from Adam Magyar on Vimeo.
If you want to know more, check out this 20-minute presentation in which the artist talks about his work and his technique.
(thanks Meguru!)
January 16, 2014 at 9:09 pm
You can call it slow motion as well as ‘high speed’ footage. This is strictly semantics. When somebody says we’re shooting ‘slow-motion’ it is clear to everybody including the Hollywood film community what is meant. Like, what else could it mean 😉
January 17, 2014 at 6:39 pm
Not to be too picky, but he boarded the train and rode it into the station, not “road it”… thanks for the post, though; I really enjoyed it.
January 18, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Interesting technique,
when you look carefuly at 1.30 you will see that guy has closed his eyes
January 19, 2014 at 6:35 am
Very sad, so very few people smiling. What is the nature of the society created, where everyone is so glum.
January 19, 2014 at 6:55 am
Look at all the happy people
January 20, 2014 at 12:21 am
Intrusive photography. Many photographers have no idea what privacy is, under the fast and loose pretense of “art”
January 21, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Art turns me into a five-year-old again; I giggled at every nose picker.
January 22, 2014 at 12:13 pm
Streaming Still. This is an amazing piece. I would love to see more such pieces, say from every subway and train station in the world.
January 23, 2014 at 9:46 am
@Robert — I’m sure you would see the same sort of faces if you did this in New York or Moscow or any other big city… why bring sophomoric national sociology into it?
January 25, 2014 at 7:44 am
Such a beautiful and eerie film.
Also, after watching the whole movie, everything on my computer screen seems to be slowly drifting to the right. 🙂