The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet

Bruno Quinquet's salarymen in suits

French photographer Bruno Quinquet captures 'man in suit' in its natural environment with his Salaryman Project

Documenting Tokyo office workers as they go about their daily business on their daily commute or having some downtime whilst reading a paper, Bruno Quinquet's photographs catch moments which seem quite poetic amongst the hustle and bustle of one of the world's most vibrant cities. 

 

The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet
The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet

Quinquet, who was born in Chambéry, France but now lives in Tokyo, spent three years photographing on the streets in his attempt to represent the changing of the seasons -  as trees blossomed and then turned auburn, rains came and skies turned blue.

 

The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet
The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet

"The Salaryman Project is on a double mission," Quinquet explains. "On one hand, it explores images of masculinity and normality in the world of Tokyo office workers. On the other hand, it is an observation of the sense of the season in the Japanese capital."

 

The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet
The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet

Not just about the changing seasons and habits of office workers, Quinquet also wanted to draw attention to the constraints of street photography when it comes to documenting people – the photographer chose to obscure the faces of his subjects with everything from street signs and condensation on a train window à la Michael Wolf to the reflections of stock exchange graphs in a window.

 

The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet
The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet

"The photographic style is an attempt to adapt in a creative way to the increasing constraints of portraits rights on candid street photography," he says. "As a result, mystery and poetry seem to blossom around the supposedly boring corporate world." See the full archive of Bruno Quinquet's Salaryman project here

 

The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet
The Salaryman Project - Bruno Quinquet