Bruno Quinquet
Ueno Park, from the series "Salaryman Project" (2006-present)
2008
Series Statement: In this series, I try to approach the archetypal figure of the Japanese male office worker (aka salaryman) in a candid street photography manner. Because of the increasing tension between photography and privacy and because of my own discomfort with the idea of candid portraiture, I give my subjects a chance to escape the gaze of the camera. The result, that can be seen as a collection of missed portrait opportunities, comes in the format of a business schedule, referencing in the same vehicle office work and the specifically Japanese sense of the season. I think that the project has some kind of documentary value, but in a poetic and slightly conceptual sense rather than as a social critique. In 2006, after a 20-year career as a recording engineer, I started photography during a stay in Japan and decided not to go back to my native France. Since graduation from the Tokyo Visual Arts Photography Department, I have pursued my photography work in Japan.
The Salaryman Project has been featured in "Street Photography Now" (Thames & Hudson 2010), HotShoe Magazine, 1000 Words Photography, Invisible Photographer Asia... and fototazo! I am now trying to self-publish this work through a crowdfunding campaign.