Katsumi WatanabeHot Dog Shinjuku 1999-2000
Photographs: Katsumi Watanabe
Publisher: Wides Shuppan Co. Ltd
152 pages
Pictures: 115
Year: 2001
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In Hot Dog Shinjuku 1999-2000, famed "drifting photographer of Shinjuku" Katsumi Watanabe's covers the same turf he explored in depth in his seminal "Gangs of Kabukicho." Kabukicho, in the east of Shinjuku ward, remains the city's seedy underbelly,, despite recent efforts at gentrification. Shot over the course of a year as Watanabe was turning 60, marking the last major publication of Watanabe's work when he was alive. Watanabe, who died of stomach cancer in 2006, was an itinerant who made a measly living - during one low point he gave up photography altogether and sold sweet potatoes on the sidewalks - shooting the dissolute denizens of Kabukicho, including the "blue-light" district's many drag queens, prostitutes and gangsters.
This book is part of the Wides Photo Collection series vol 10.
