Katsumi Watanabe – Shinjuku, India, Shinjuku (2011)

200 Yen per picture was the flat rate of Katsumi Watanabe in the famous Shinjuku, in Tokyo. Walking around the streets of this popular area the photographer found all kinds of people that populate the margins of society, from sex workers or people who lives in the streets to the yakuza, people in parties, punks, rockers… Life in its full form or at least that’s how we imagine it in that city after dark. Watanabe took pictures of this environment his entire life starting in the 60s and finishing in 2006 with his death. In the middle of this big enterprise he travelled to India in 1982, where he would look for his old Shinjuku. Who knows if he really found it, but he took great street shots in a completely different space.

The book is organized in three parts: Shinjuku 1968-1981, India 1982 and then Shinjuku 1984-2003. Most of the pictures were taken at night, with the classic flash and the gritty contrasted aesthetic that made this photographer one of the best in the streets. At the end there are some essays from Daido Moriyama and other famous Japanese figures. All texts are in Japanese.

Pot Publishing, 2011. Softcover, 192 pages. 257 × 170 mm. ISBN: 978-4-7808-0158-3.

First edition. Condition: like new.