Japan from a Giant's Perspective

By Kjeld Duits, Saturday March 5, 2011 - news internet

UNIQLO has finally finished its UNIQLO CALENDAR, showing an incredible fast-moving miniaturized Japan

Recently, UNIQLO finished its amazing UNIQLO CALENDAR site.

During the span of 2 years, the company commissioned 328 tilt shift shooting sessions in 140 cities in 47 prefectures of Japan. From the many hundreds of photos it shot, it created fast moving movies, showing beautiful spots and events in Japan as a miniaturized world. The great sound track only adds to the effect.

Suddenly, Japan looks like it is peopled by highly evolved ants. Except, those ants are us. People look just as silly as the small band of penguins they follow at a zoo, and a panda eating bamboo seems more in sync with life than the human visitors seemingly passing by at the speed of light. Immense landscapes are transformed into the tiny toy worlds we admire at amusement parks.

It is mesmerizing and beautiful, but a bit disturbing too, to see so many passionate moments so small, and passing so fast.

It shows how fleeting life is, and how tiny we really are. In a way it is very Buddhist. It tells you, This too shall pass. But in a wonderful and fun way.

Go over to the UNIQLO CALENDAR site, discover a Japan you have never seen before and enjoy some Zen-like out of this world moments.

UNIQLO CALENDAR

About the Author

Inspired by the stunningly creative street fashion that exploded on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka in the late 1990’s, photo-journalist Kjeld Duits launched JAPANESE STREETS in 2002. This makes JS one of the first fashion blogs on the net, and the very first to cover Japanese street fashion.

Comment （日本語もOK）

I really love these movies. I can watch them for hours!

Kjeld Duits (author)
Mar 5, 2011 (3205 days ago)

This is amazing! But I don’t understand how this has been made – is it real footage? How did they make it look like it’s in miniature format?

Keekii
Mar 8, 2011 (3203 days ago)

@Keekii: It is all real. They combined two photography techniques that have become quite popular the past few years: tilt-shift photography (AKA miniature faking) and time lapse photography. If you do a Google search on these terms you can find lots of examples, and even manuals on how to do it yourself. ^^

Kjeld Duits (author)
Mar 8, 2011 (3202 days ago)

This is great! And it is indeed very Buddhist-ic, which makes it even more wonderful. It makes you think about life. I like the video very much, it’s very fun and lovely, but it’s also rather dark if you think about.