Tuesday 4 November 2008

Pawel Jaszczuk
































































All images ©Pawel Jaszczuk

Paul Jaszczuk from Anzenberger dropped me a line the other day to tell me about his series Salaryman, a choice selection of which are on view here. Here is an excerpt from what he had to say with regard to his subjects´ antics:

"In Japan heavy drinking is a naturally accepted and sometimes compulsory catharsis for the hard working salaryman. They don´t really care about having their suitcase or they mobile phone stolen. This is Japan, and as easy as it may seems to pick their wallet, drunk salaryman are part of the urban landscape, respected by everyone. A million ways different from the West, where young people get wasted and break the limits as an accepted crazy young attitude, but where for respectable family men it´s shameful to be caught totally drunk by a neighbour."

Jaszczuk was born in Warsaw, Poland (1978). He's a self taught photographer who began his photographic career after graduating School of Visual Arts in Sydney with a degree in graphic design(2004).From 2005 to present he has been based in Tokyo and worked for a range of international magazines including New York Times Magazine, Donna di La Republica, Fashion Lab to name a few. In 2007 he became a member of international photographers agency ANZENBERGER and that same year he was selected for FIELD-a curated project space for contemporary visual arts in Blickensdorff gallery, Berlin. Check out more of his work that bears witness to other aspects of the underbelly of Japanese society on his website here.