Publisher/TBW Books

Google翻訳
"Once in Harlem" is a photobook by Japanese photographer Katsumi Naito (1965-). Naito moved to the United States in the 1980s, began his life in New York while working as a chef, and eventually settled in Harlem. This book compiles a series of photographs taken while he lived there from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Naito didn't start shooting immediately after picking up his camera; he walked the streets for about two years, building relationships with the people before he began to take pictures. What he captures are portraits of residents posing, young people standing on the streets, quiet street corners, and the atmosphere of the night—the very essence of time that flowed through Harlem before its redevelopment. The portraits with makeshift backdrops set up outdoors have a frontal quality reminiscent of Richard Avedon, but Naito's photographs exude an intimacy and warmth that can only be possessed by those who have been slowly accepted into the community, more than mere staging. This work is a record of Harlem just before it was drastically changed by gentrification, and at the same time, it is an important work that marks the time of the photographer himself, who continued to confront others as an outsider.