Known for its independent stance on photography, the agency Magnum Photos has been home to some of the world's most prominent photojournalists, starting with its legendary founders, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier Bresson, David Seymour and George Rodger.

Since its start in 1947, the agency's photographers have been regarded as visionaries. They are known for the visual impact of their war-zone documentaries, the eloquence of their commentary and the emotive power of their works. In celebration of the agency's 60th anniversary, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is holding an exhibition of 150 monochrome and color photographs of Tokyo, seen through the eyes of Magnum photographers from the 1950s through to 2006.

For an audience familiar with local shooters such as Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki and Shomei Tomatsu, who have an innate knowledge of their home town, some of the recent works might feel cliched, concentrating on the easy subject matter that the West obsesses over: Harajuku's cosplayers, Akihabara's otaku (geek) culture, and Tokyo's sex clubs. This may make it seem that -- as well documented as Tokyo already is -- it is difficult for photographers to come without preconceptions; that what often guides them is not an openness to local character and its universality but their own expectations of the differences they will find. One Magnum photographer even expressed "disappointment" when he came to Tokyo on a residency and found that most of the city lacked the excitement that many photos of it portrayed.