Inter States title

“Seen this way, Tokyo really is beautiful.”– A comment from the Japanese Niconico Video user who originally posted photographer Samuel Cockedey’s video “Inter States” to the social video site.

The time-lapse video shows splashes of neon interspersed with orange street lamps, streaking red taillights and rushes of black figures, painting detail onto the concrete canvas that is Japan’s capital city. Hives of energy and movement, it sometimes takes an outsider’s perspective to recognise that even a sprawling metropolises like Tokyo can be quite breathtaking when we stop to notice them. The full video after the jump.

French-born Samuel Cockedey moved to Tokyo in 2000. Since then, he has taken thousands of photographs and captured hours of footage of the city and the rest of the country, recording the everyday events and watching the traffic — both human and otherwise — zip between buildings, along railway lines and in and out of the concrete hub. His time-lapse pieces border on the hypnotic, with a catchy, pulsing beats keeping pace with the on-screen action.

Check out the video here:

To see more of Samuel’s work — including my own personal favourite, “Autumn“, which was shot back in 2009 — visit his official website at at samuelcockedey.com. We’re sure you won’t regret it.

Source: Niconico / Samuel Cockedey

Special thanks to our friends at Niconico for the tip and for supplying us with the above video.