Love in Shinjuku

The Love statue in front of Shinjuku I-Land Tower is a well-known landmark in Nishi-Shinjuku. Created by the American artist Robert Indiana, it is big and red and very hard to miss.  In fact, it is one of the most popular meeting place in the area. On top of that, it is one of the most popular things to photograph there too.

There is even an urban legend about it that says if you can pass between the V and E without your body touching either side, whatever romantic relationship you’re in will succeed. Whether that is true or not, I’ve got no idea.  I’ve been married for the last twenty years do I’m not in much need of testing it out.

Love in front of Shinjuku I-Land Tower

Love can be a difficult to photograph at times as at certain times of the day, so many people can be there waiting around.  On occasion I’ve turned up at strange times of the day, 2 pm or 3 pm and found it really crowded, with everyone head down looking at their smartphones.  Why? If you sneak around and look over their shoulders you’ll see they are all playing Pokemon! The Love sculpture seems to be a special spawn spot for certain characters in the game.

Love isn’t hard to photograph.  Usually it is just a matter of waiting till people move out of the way, but it’s highly like you’ll end up with someone in the background somewhere.  One way around that is using a tripod and doing a long exposure. Long exposures have the added bonuses of the light trails from cars and buses in the background, if you can position your camera properly.

As always, if you have any comments or questions leave them them down below (way down below, below the tag box and archives.  Seriously, if you want to write something you go to go all the way to the bottom of the page so use that scroll button!)

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower behind Love

Gear for this shot:

Camera - Fujifilm X-T2

Lens - Fujifilm XF 10 - 24 mm f/4.0 R OIS Lens