How a Japanese Vending Machines Obsession Became a Photo Book

With a current population of over 14-million, these little towers of commerce offer the capitol city’s residents convenience at nearly every turn. In many of the vending machines, you’ll find hot and cold beverages, snacks, and other odds and ends. “Cake-in-a-can, a hot bowl of ramen, individually wrapped pieces of fruit, caviar, clothing — the list goes on,” Tanner details. If you had visited the country prior to the mid-90’s, you would have found plenty of machines loaded with cold cans of Japanese light lagers and pilsners before their placement was scaled back to address issues like underage drinking.

With the daunting task of editing and self-publishing “The Observer’s Guide to Japanese Vending Machines” complete, we caught up with Tanner to ask him some questions about what drew him towards this subject matter and the publishing process itself.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/tanner-bowden-japan-vending-machines-book