I Dauyu: Tokyo's Best Street Photographer

I Dauyu is a Japanese street photographer based in Tokyo, and if you have spent any time looking through Japanese street photography on Instagram, there is a good chance you have come across his work. Rainy days, reflections and especially red umbrellas have become a big part of the style he’s known for. Born in Saitama in 1997, he first got interested in photography while he was at university, partly through the influence of friends around him. Like a lot of photographers today, he didn’t start with an expensive camera setup either. His first step into photography was simply shooting with an iPhone before eventually moving over to dedicated cameras, with Sony gear becoming a regular part of his setup. Tokyo obviously gives a street photographer an incredible amount to work with, but what I like about i_dauyu’s photography is that he doesn’t try to show everything at once. His compositions are usually pretty clean and controlled. Instead of filling the frame with dozens of people, signs, cars, and lights, he’ll often find one strong subject and build the photo around that. And rain is a huge part of his work. While plenty of photographers would rather stay home when the weather turns bad, those are often exactly the conditions that make his photography interesting. Wet streets create reflections, puddles pick up the colors of the city, and umbrellas give him simple shapes that immediately stand out against the background. The red umbrella in particular has almost become a signature in his work. Against the softer blues, greys, and darker tones of a rainy Tokyo street, that little bit of red immediately gives your eye somewhere to go. Sometimes the person carrying it is actually tiny within the frame, but because of the color contrast, they’re still clearly the subject. It’s a really simple idea, but he uses it very well. You’ll also see plenty of reflections throughout his work. Puddles, wet pavement, glass, and other reflective surfaces allow him to take oth