Unseen Everyday Japan

May 10 – June 9, 2017

Unseen Everyday Japan is a photo exhibition showing an alternative vision of contemporary Japanese life through Instagram. The photos span from urban street scenes, to more complex social issues. Documentary photographer Q. Sakamaki curated the images from @EverydayJapan, an Instagram account of the global photography project, The Everyday Projects, which depicts everyday life through the eyes of its contributors. Unseen Everyday Japan is part of the Head On Photo Festival, running in May.

The images in the exhibition capture the unseen stories of human drama and modern life in strongly aestheticized imagery. From snapshots of quiet summertime sunshine to lonely shoebox apartments, the Japanese photographers document a different—but very much real—experience of daily life.

Sakamaki doesn’t believe that shooting with mobile phone cameras devalue photography. For the Time magazine and Newsweek photographer, they are “tools to show the photographer’s view. The most important thing, again, comes from inside the photographer.”

I feel something soulful, like I’m touching some human emotion behind the scene. If I’m shooting a building or a landscape, I feel something behind there like a spirit of nature, or a spirit of the human soul.

Q. Sakamaki, on shooting with his phone’s camera.

Image Gallery

ABOUT Q. SAKAMAKI

Photo by Bob Demchuk

Q. Sakamaki is a New York-based Japanese documentary photographer, curator, and educator focusing on human experiences, socio-economic issues, and narratives from war zones. His photographs have appeared in books and magazines worldwide, including Time magazine and Newsweek, and have been the subject of international solo exhibitions. His acclaimed work documenting Liberian child soldiers features in an international campaign. Sakamaki’s work has been awarded the World Press Photo award and two Overseas Press Club prizes.

@qsakamaki / www.qsakamaki.com

ABOUT EVERYDAY JAPAN

Everyday Japan is a photographic project to document stories of everyday life captured by members and contributors on Instagram. It is part of a global project called The Everyday Projects which included @EverydayAfrica, @EverydayAustralia, and more.

@EverydayJapan / www.everywhere.everydayprojects.org

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