(SOLD): SEUNG-WOO, Yang. Outlaw Life: Shinjuku, Kabukicho.

(Japan): Self-published, no date (c.2004).  First edition.  Softcover.  29.5cm by 21cm.  The photographer’s first book, unrecorded and previously unknown.  Presumably issued in just a handful of copies to accompany Seung-woo’s first solo exhibition of the same title at the Tokyo Polytechnic University Art Information Center Gallery in 2004.  Yang Seung-woo a South Korean photographer, moved to Tokyo in 1996 to study at the Japan College of Photography and thereafter Tokyo Polytechnic University during this period Seungo-woo, drawn to outcasts began to photograph the characters in the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku thus beginning his compelling documentation of urban life and subcultures in both Japan and Korea. Kabukicho, the red light district of Tokyo, has earned the nickname the ‘sleepless town’ the night-time capital of Tokyo, Seungo-woo’s images here paint an intimate portrait of the charachters who inhabit the district, capturing the nuances of street life and the complexities of societal fringes.  This is a very good copy in photoillustrated wrappers.  A truly wonderful book, without doubt the finest of his photographic documentations of marginalized communities that has established him as a significant figure in contemporary photography, offering profound insights into the human experience through his lens.  Rare, with no google reference.