Photographer Takashi Homma is perhaps best known for documenting the nuances of Tokyo living. Capturing people, young and old, from the city’s centre to its suburban districts and the landscapes that surround it, Homma uses his camera to explore urban living, youth culture and the quotidian. In his formative work, Tokyo Suburbia (1998), which later won the Kimura Ihei Commemorative Photography Award, Homma collated photos of the city and its people. What at first might appear almost peaceful begins to allude to something more nuanced, posing questions about changing landscapes, the effects of rapid economic growth and urban development. All the while, his images are marked with a sense of distance and neutrality.
A far cry from Homma’s city work is New Waves, an ongoing project in which the photographer, now 64 years old, refocuses his camera, shifting away from the populace to the sea and sky. Mostly photographed on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, each photograph depicts a wave as it approaches land, capturing the inconsistency of the ocean. While no two are the same, a sense of continuity and timelessness emerges through the series, which becomes a meditation on time, space, repetition and purpose.
“My photographs are not necessarily showing some kind of event or incident,” says Homma. “I’m not aiming for any particular wave. I just press the shutter in response to whatever wave arrives, gratefully.”
Beginning back in the millennium, and first culminating in 2013, the series has been featured in multiple exhibitions. Some of Homma’s wave images are on display in Selfridges as part of a temporary space hosted by Celine, also featuring pieces from Été Celine and Automne 2026. Homma’s work draws a neat parallel with Michael Rider’s vision for the brand, which rejects concept and tradition. “Rider simply does what he does,” Alexander Fury wrote in a review of the Celine Autumn/Winter 2026 show.
Here, we speak to Homma about the photo series, the ocean and what he hopes people will discover from his images.
Rose Dodd: New Waves is an interesting juxtaposition from your work in cities, particularly Tokyo. Can you tell us about this alternative side of your photography, your focus on nature and the ocean?
Takashi Homma: My interest in this series is the photographic problem of the “decisive moment”.
RD: You’ve previously described this series as a way of engaging with “the photographic problem of the decisive moment without capturing any particularly decisive moments.” Can you tell me more about this?
TH: I simply receive the waves that continuously come toward me. I’m not aiming for any particular wave. I just press the shutter in response to whatever wave arrives, gratefully. Maybe it could even be automatic. And enjoy that act itself.
RD: Where did you shoot – is it one location or multiple?
TH: Mostly the same place.
RD: In some way, do you think waves become a metaphor for something more? Perhaps the people and passers-by you capture in cities?
TH: I think people are free to see it that way if they want to.
RD: You were born and raised in Tokyo, and your family worked in a camera shop. Do you think this influenced you in becoming a photographer?
TH: I don’t think that has anything to do with it. When I was young, I was seriously planning to become a baseball player.
RD: Did you spend time at the beach growing up?
TH: No, not really.
RD: What is the experience of photographing landscapes without people like? How does it differ from photographing spaces populated by people and passers-by?
TH: I don’t consider nature itself to be important. I’m thinking about photography above all.
RD: What did you enjoy most about the project?
TH: When an unexpected wave appears in the final image.
RD: Your work is often described as new documentary, observational and neutral. How does this align with your work on New Waves? What do you hope people perceive from these photographs?
TH: My photographs are not necessarily showing some kind of event or incident. But I definitely think they are documentary photographs, regardless of how people categorise them. Nothing really happens in them, and yet if someone looks at them and thinks, “There’s something good about this photograph … I wonder why” – that makes me happy.
Takashi Homma’s New Waves series is on display alongside Celine’s Été and Fall 2026 collections in The Corner Shop at Selfridges London until 27 June 2026.
