Yakuza

Head On Photo Festival 2013

Anton Kuster

event-detail-person-vertical — Anton Kuster

This event has concluded

Dates: 18 May 2013 - 22 Jun 2013

Location: The Muse, TAFE Sydney Institute 695-731 Harris St Ultimo NSW 2007 Australia

Hours: Mon-Sat 11am-5pm. Closed Mon 10 June 2013

Entry Fee: Free

Exhibition Event:

Official Opening 17/05/2013 8:00 am

A Yakuza family enters a hotel bar in Niigata. My brother and I have negotiated with them for ten months, and we have been granted permission for me to follow and photograph them for two years.

As they walk in, I watch the extremely subtle social interactions: the micro-expressions on the faces,the gestures, the voices and intonations, the body language, the absolute respect.
The criminal element. As customers silently leave the bar to make room for the Godfather to have a coffee, everything appears to be strictly organized, yet at the same time completely natural: for some reason I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do, where to sit, when to talk or when to shut up. It’s like I can feel the boundaries and the implicit expectations.

It’s hard. It’s scary. I’m slowly learning, little by little trying to understand this Japanese way.
But it feels like I’ll never fully comprehend.

Sitting at the table with a bodyguard looking straight through me, I drink my iced coffee.
I switch on my camera. It has begun.

I can feel the acute sensation of walking on eggshells.

Anton Kusters