As you read that opening sentence, Ikumi Nakamura is best known to you as a game artist and director he worked on everything Eyes to bayonet to The evil in to Ghostwire: Tokyo. However, did you know that she’s also been a prolific one for over a decade urban explorer?
I certainly don’t! But since 2009 She posted photos online as TommyYoung, to a website cataloging photos of abandoned rooms in places as diverse as Japan, Alaska, Bali and Mexico. The bio of the site simply says
Hi! I am the Japanese urban explorer “Tommy”. I enjoy urban explorations around the world.
But today publisher Read-Only Memory announced that TommyBoy was actually Nakamura, and that’s because they decided to publish a book together and collect some of their favorite photos in print for the first time ever. This book is called Project UrbEx
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Described as “a a thrilling photographic adventure centered around an offbeat selection of the world’s abandoned buildings, captured by one of the video game industry’s most beloved creatives,” it spans 256 pages of photos and diary excerpts by Nakamura and is available in different formats.
Famed video game creator Ikumi Nakamura became widely known after giving a speech about a “scary” game. Ghostwire: Tokyo, at the prestigious E3 conference. Her talent, infectious personality and strong grasp of the world – “I don’t think I’ve changed much since I was a child” – has attracted a worldwide cult following. What many fans don’t know, however, is that Nakamura has a secret alter ego in “TommyBoy” – a fearless urban explorer.
For years, Nakamura has criss-crossed the planet visiting abandoned buildings under the radar, from the Igloo Hotel in Alaska, a magnificent domed structure with an intricate carousel-like wooden framework, to a mysterious liquor factory in Mexico with a giant replica bottle on the roof and the disused one Blue Horizon boxing ring where Rocky (1976) was filmed. Nakamura has worked in the games industry for almost two decades and has dreamed up many imaginary worlds, but it’s these forgotten corners of the real world that really fuel her creative vision. Her photographic eye conjures up the survival horror feel of her own dystopian video games.
With Google Maps at our fingertips, it can often feel impossible to get lost or discover something new, but through her daring escapades, Nakamura unlocks a lost spirit of true adventure. Hers is an enthusiastic type of tour guide, taking the reader to eye-opening spaces and atmospheres through exceptional photography and transporting – and sometimes amusing – stories.
Their images, gathered here for the first time in print, show that from Japan to the United States, from Belgium to Taiwan, and from Europe to Bali, our planet is filled with man-made structures that lie derelict and undisturbed, waiting to be desolate to be discovered by intrepid explorers.
The revelation certainly makes sense in hindsight! Nakamura made a video about her last year History in the branch and its new Video game studio with Archipelagoand did this while exploring some lost buildings; turns out what it looked like back then some location scouting or just a cool setting for an interview was actually very This.
You can Order a copy here.
