Photo Exhibition : Kwon Choul, photojournalist

Kwon is a friend of mine who contributed some images to my recent TOKYO REALTIME: Kabukicho project

Photo Exhibition : Kwon Choul, photojournalist
Time: 2008 Nov 01 11:00 - 11:00
Summary:

Living in Kabukicho (Main Bar)
Kokoro-chan, a homeless girl in Kabukicho (Sushi Bar)

Description:

FCCJ Main Bar & Sushi Bar
November 1-November 29, 2008
Kwon Choul, photojournalist

I come from Korea, and a relatively peaceful part. Perhaps that's why Kabukicho, Japan's biggest entertainment district, was at first too much to fit into my viewfinder. But soon, recording the fleeting moments of the town became an addiction.
The women of Kabukicho summon all men's dirty desires. Bloods and violence are daily visitors. Sometimes I want to turn my face away from Kabukicho and its tourists, students and drunken salarimen. But if you want to really see people’s lives you have to conquer fear and surrender yourself to violence and desire. That’s why I live and shoot in Kabukicho. Within the Kabukicho district, the Koma Theater Plaza is crowded with people throughout the day. Ten years ago cardboard houses started to concentrate in the area. In one of these houses I met a small girl living with her father.

"What is your name?"
"Kokoro!"
She held up four fingers to tell me her age and smiled.
"Who are you living with, Kokoro?"
"Hmmm... With my daddy."
"What about your mom?"
"I don't know!"

After Kokoro was born in Asakusa her father took her to Omiya, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and finally to Kabukicho. Now she lives in a child welfare facility.

Kwon Choul, photojournalist.
Born in South Korea, 1967.
Kwon is well known for his work on Shinjuku Kabukicho, Hansen's disease, North Korean escapees, US military base issues, and minorities in Japan.

Publications:
"Kabukicho Jihen (Kabukicho Affairs) 1996~2006" (Wani Magazine)
"Kokoro-chan, a girl in Kabukicho" (Kodansha, will be published December 2008)