Statement by Yoshihiro Ikka

“My photographs are a record of the people who have reached their limit and exhausted their strength after the daily grind.”

“Everyone has different burdens, but everyone lives at a frantic pace. People drink with friends as a reward for the hard day’s work and face a new day’s work like warriors.”

“A lot of people struggle through such work situations.”

“I took these pictures with a true feeling of respect for the people in them. I don’t believe the state my subjects are in is shabby in any way. I can feel they have experienced hardships and fatigue to end up like this.”

Kenji Kawamoto is a photographer based in Tokyo, Japan.
To view more of Kenji Kawamoto's work, please visit his website.