Neon-lit visions of Asia's largest metropolises

Teemu Jarvinen is a Finnish photographer known for his street photography and cityscapes across Asia. As a digital nomad in the IT industry, Jarvinen travels the world, taking every opportunity he can to capture images wherever he finds himself. Inspired by the futuristic aesthetic of cities such as Tokyo and Seoul, Jarvinen’s photography often focuses on the neon lights and colors that come alive at night.

芬兰摄影师 Teemu Jarvinen，以他在亚洲各地的街头摄影和城市景观而闻名。作为一个在 IT 行业的数字游牧者，Teemu 周游世界，利用一切可能的机会，捕捉他在不同城市自己所在的图像。受到东京和首尔等城市未来主义审美观的启发，贾维宁的摄影作品经常聚焦于夜晚鲜活的霓虹灯和色彩。

For Jarvinen, notable Instagram photographers have played a major role in shaping his style—he cites photographer Liam Wong as one of his main influences. At the same time, he laments the herd mentality that platforms like Instagram have fostered by encouraging people to take photos in the locations or styles that will generate the most likes. Jarvinen says, “There’s a phenomenon amongst aspiring photographers today where each one of us is trying to take the same photo at the same spot, which is all too easy to do. I’m guilty of this as well, sometimes when you go to a scenic place it’s hard not to take that iconic shot that will undoubtedly get a lot of Instagram likes each time.”

在 Teemu 看来，Instagram 上著名的摄影师 Liam Wong 是影响他的主要人物之一，在塑造他的摄影风格方面发挥了重要作用。同时，他也感慨像 Instagram 这样的平台通过鼓励摄影师在最受欢迎的地点或风格拍照，从而也培养了大家的从众心理。Teemu 说：“现在的摄影师中存在这样一个现象，就是每个人都试图在同一地点拍摄同一张照片，这很容易做到。但有时候当你去一个风景秀丽的地方，很难不拍下每次都能得到很多赞的标志性照片。我也为此感到愧疚。”

Jarvinen feels his photography is more authentic when he’s creating images at street level, as opposed to taking shots of iconic landscapes and cityscapes. “Street photography forces you to be creative and to look for beauty in the mundane. It forces you to explore and walk around cities, a perfect hobby for a traveler. And lastly, it’s really difficult to do well which makes it very rewarding when you do get a really good shot,” he says. His advice to aspiring photographers is simple: “Never be completely satisfied with your work. Analyze what you like or dislike about your own and other people’s work. And then just go out and shoot a lot, edit a lot. Over a longer period of time, you will keep getting better.”

根据 Teemu 的说法，摄影是创造街头图像更真实的途径，而不仅仅是拍摄标志性的风景和城市景观。他告诉我们，“街头摄影迫使你富有创造性，要在世俗中寻找美。它迫使你在城市里探索和行走，一个旅行者的完美爱好。最后，要做好是很困难的，所以当你得到一个非常好的球时，这是非常值得的。”他对立志摄影的同行给出了很简单的建议：“永远不要对你的作品完全满意。去分析自己和他人的照片里你喜欢或不喜欢的地方，然后走出去，多拍照，多修图。慢慢随着时间过去，你就会越来越上手。”