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📸 Nicolas | Street Photography

@ndebras

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Street photography 📷 🇫🇷 🇧🇪
Member of @streetphotographyfrance.fr

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The Sleeper in the Station. No red hole in his right side just a peaceful nap. (a reference to the poem “le dormeur du Val”, by Arthur Rimbaud),
I took this photo at Kyoto Station. The way the Japanese can fall asleep anywhere never fails to impress me.
It's a bit macabre, but when I saw him, I couldn't help thinking of Arthur Rimbaud's poem "Le Dormeur du val" ("The Sleeper in the Valley"). Except that our man here is simply taking a little nap, peacefully.
In Japan, this kind of nap has a name: inemuri (居眠り), literally "sleeping while present." It's said to be tolerated, even seen as proof that you've worked hard. Back home, we call it falling asleep in a meeting, and it rarely ends this well.
#kyotostreetphotography #japanstreetphotography #kyotostation #urbangeometry #inemuri by @ndebras

Osaka, caught in the rain.
Dotonbori, entre deux éclaircies. L'averse tombe sans prévenir, on se réfugie sous l'entrée d'un centre commercial. Un livreur à vélo continue sa route, seul dans le contre-jour.
#osakastreetphotography #streetphotographyjapan #colorstreetphoto #rainstreetphotography #sonyzv1 by @ndebras

JAPAN - Chapter 17 : Faces of Osaka

Osaka, around Namba. A city that speaks loudly, in red and yellow.

A woman looks higher than the signs.
Legs walk into the light; the rest will follow.
A man keeps his words behind his hand.
Two young people lean on a railing and return my gaze.
A crowd turns its back on everything except takoyaki.
And someone hides in a photo booth: the only way to escape my lens is to take your own picture.

Which one stops you the longest? Tell me its number (feet count too).
Send this to someone you'd walk Osaka with, head up, camera low.

#osaka #streetportrait #streetphotography #life_is_street #candid by @ndebras

JAPAN - Chapter 16: Dotonbori, where the signs steal the show

Osaka says "kuidaore": to eat yourself into ruin. In Dotonbori, even the signs are hungry: a golden face leaning over its skewers, a giant crab with moving legs, an octopus lantern, a runner with raised arms above the canal.

And the runner has competition: a stranger strikes the Glico man pose, arms up, no hesitation at all. He is fully committed. Nobody asked him to, and that is what makes the moment perfect. Hats off: in Dotonbori, you have to dare.

Osaka is a merchants' city, and the rule is simple: the bigger, the better it sells. In Kyoto, signs stay discreet. In Osaka, they put on a show, and passers-by play along.

Golden face, crab, octopus or runner: which sign would make you walk in? Send this to someone who is already hungry !

#dotonbori #osaka #streetphotography #spicollective #japanstreetphotography by @ndebras

OSAKA - Open arms on the right, eyes on the phone on the left.
Osaka, where the signs shout in red and pink and the statue never stops smiling.
Who gets your attention first?

#osakastreetphotography #StreetPhotographyJapan #japanstreetphotography #colorstreetphotography #streetphotography by @ndebras

Not street photography, I know. No street, no strangers, just a very shiny temple and a pond that did half the work for me.
Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto. Under a grey sky, the gold looks even louder.
A bit of history, because it earns it. In 1397, shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu bought a villa on this spot. After his death it became a Zen temple. It survived the Ōnin War in the 15th century, then burned down in 1950 when a young monk set it on fire. The pavilion you see today was rebuilt in 1955. So yes, my "ancient" golden temple is a 1955 rebuild, and it still gets all my respect.
Do you shoot the postcard spot, or do you skip it?
#kinkakuji #kyotophotography #japanphotography #goldenpavilion #kyoto by @ndebras

JAPAN - Chapter 13: Kyoto - People in the streets
Kyoto never really sleeps, it only pretends to.
On a street corner, my son in the red beanie was photographing a world I couldn't see. I wondered if he was photographing me too.
Two women walked past a parked taxi, and for a second, Kyoto stopped around them.
I followed Van Gogh across a crosswalk. His starry night was printed on the back of a stranger staring at his feet. The light was red and nobody looked up. I raised my camera.
Two men shared a moment together under a tree, with a can and a conversation that needed no one else.
In a van, a child rested their chin in their hand and watched the world go by, with the air of knowing something we've all forgotten.
Further along, a man was drinking his coffee against the light, with the words COFFEE and RECORDS written backwards behind him, as if the city were speaking to me from the other side of the mirror.
In a laundromat open day and night, head hidden in a cloud, someone was waiting while the machines' round windows spun like little moons.
A cook was plating a takeaway tray while the queue held its breath. Behind the glass, a stranger watched the scene, as if she knew I was stealing the moment.
#kyotostreetphotography #streetsofkyoto #kyotodiary #candidstreet #dailylifejapan by @ndebras

JAPAN - Chapter 14: Kyoto – The Good Morning Record Bar. The kind of place we sorely lack back home.
A bar where you come to listen to music with friends. The concept is simple: a calm place, kind and open people, and music. I don’t think you can call the Good Morning Record Bar a jazz kissa, but it comes very close.
A small all-wood room bathed in orange light. Sleeves and drawings on the walls, vinyl on the shelves, a DJ with headphones on. That night, it was some good old school hip-hop: nobody talks loudly, the music takes up all the space.
I loved this place! It’s hard for a foreign tourist to make social connections in Japan, except here (and in a few other places, of course). You meet curious, open-minded people. A real pleasure!
And on the third photo, you can easily tell that Kyoto isn’t that far from France!
📍 Kyoto, @goodmorningrecordbar
90 SHINMACHI, KYOTO-SHI SHIMOGYO-KU

#goodmorningrecordbar #recordbar #kyotojapan #japandiary #vinylcommunity by @ndebras

Bruxelles, 17 octobre 2026

#streetphotography #brussels #bruxelles #protestphotography #fujifilmxt3 by @ndebras

Bruxelles, 17 octobre 2026

#bruxelles #belgique #streetphotography #jeunesse by @ndebras

Japan can wait. Brussels can't.
Le Japon attend. Bruxelles ne peut pas.

#bruxelles #manifestation #streetphotography #documentaryphotography #photojournalisme by @ndebras

JAPAN - Chapter 12: Kyoto - Stations and Transit
Those who guide, those who wait, those who keep walking without looking up.
A very polite attendant pointing the way, a woman reading no matter what while she waits for the train to Osaka, a passerby going down the stairs without taking her eyes off her phone, a tunnel that seems endless, Kyoto Station like an anthill... Kyoto Station is this constant balancing act between the calm of the corridors and the flow of the halls, with Kyoto Tower guarding the sky.
#kyotostreetphotography #japanstreetphotography #kyotostation #streetphotographyjapan #train by @ndebras