The 2020 Rainbow Bridge special colors were a lighting display in Tokyo to signal the city’s pandemic status. Medical workers were honored with blue lights, while red lights indicated a Tokyo Alert for rising infection rates. Photographers captured these unique shifts from Odaiba viewpoints like Marine House and the Statue of Liberty.
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After three months in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, I hadn’t been able to do a night shoot in Tokyo. For a passionate night photographer, this felt like an eternity.
As soon as restrictions eased, I resumed my night photography. My first destination had to be the Rainbow Bridge. While I’ve photographed it many times before, this time was unique.
You have to realize Tokyo, at that time, wasn’t out of the woods. The disease was still here, and even though things were returning to semi-normality, people still fell victim to it. To bring attention to that, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government decided to light up the bridge in a different scheme, blue followed by red. I wanted to photograph that!
Blue for heroes & red for alerts
In the early evening, the first color was blue. Blue was chosen to show respect to the medical staff who have served their communities. Many of them had worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic. Blue, often associated with credibility, trust, cleanliness, calm, and focus, was the obvious choice.
Subsequently, at 8 p.m., the blue transitioned to a stark ‘red alert.’ This shift served as a powerful reminder that even though the lockdown had ended, the pandemic was far from over. People were still contracting COVID, and there had been big spikes in numbers. They needed to be reminded that Tokyo wasn’t out of danger. We, the public, shouldn’t get complacent. Who listened? It seemed many didn’t.
Views from the Marine House deck
Initially, the message of the special colors seemed effective. But after visiting Odaiba myself, I felt their impact was lost. To use something constantly reduces it to the mundane. It looks nice, but that is all.
I took some pictures at Marine House, a small building on the beach with a kiosk and some restaurants. Its observation deck on the third floor wasn’t very high, but it was the perfect place to get pictures of Rainbow Bridge. Most importantly, few people go there.
The Statue of Liberty viewpoint
Once I finished, I moved to another observation deck to get a different perspective. That one was near the Statue of Liberty. In retrospect, that was a mistake.
The Rainbow Bridge observation deck was crowded to the extreme. Not a single person seemed worried about social distancing. It was the perfect place to catch COVID. So I moved a long distance away from the crowd. I went home after a couple of quick shots (which included that ugly fence).
A beautiful but ironic symbol
While the Rainbow Bridge looked beautiful in its special colors, the sight of the crowded observation deck revealed a tragic irony. A symbol meant to promote caution had inadvertently created a potential hotspot. That probably didn’t please the very medical heroes it was meant to honor.
To learn more about the bridge, check out [Rainbow Bridge Tokyo: The Photo Guide].
My photography gear for this shoot
- Camera: Fujifilm X-T3
- Lens: Fujifilm XF 16-55 mm F2.8 R LM WR
- Tripod
- Cable release
