Q. Sakamaki

Q. Sakamaki, ‘Financial Crisis’, 2008.

Sakamaki is a Japanese photographer who moved to New York in 1986, where he started off working as a writer before turning to photography. His work started on the Lower Eastside of the city where he documented the anti-gentrification protests. 

The theme we will be running with for our festival this year is ‘Economy’.

I came across this body of work by Q. Sakamaki when doing my research to find a suitable practitioner who could be brought forward as the main act at our exhibition.

I have decided to run with this body of work as I feel it’s a perfect match for the theme we’re hosting and Sakamaki is a well-rounded and experienced artist when it comes to this topic.

This work was shot in and around Wall St, New York in October 2008, when the collapse of the stock market was at its worst. With the USA recording their biggest loss on stocks in a one day fall since the ‘Black Monday’ crash in October 1987, the scene was set for many photographers and journalists.

Our theme of ‘Economy’ has kept the exhibition open to entries that can cover a range of ideas and perceptions from financial to social, political to environmental; it will always be something that will in some way have affected us personally.