Irene Beers
For Almost Blue Aram Tanis photographed the boxes and tents in which the homeless live in Tokyo. Here most homeless people are middle-aged or older men, often once white-collar workers or company owners. Japan's working culture is ruthless and the reason for many of these people to eventually choose a life outside the system.
Japan has a culture of long working hours. Karoshi, the Japanese term to describe death attributed to overwork, is a well known phenomenon in this country. Nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have employees working more than 80 hours overtime a month, often unpaid, and 12 percent have employees breaking the 100 hours a month mark. 80 hours overtime a month is regarded as the threshold above which you have an increased chance of dying.
With Almost Blue Tanis shows us the alternative homes people have created for themselves so they can escape the oppression of Japanese society.
Almost Blue has been exhibited among others at London Photo (London / UK), Souterrain, Centre for Contemporary (Amsterdam / NL), Coalmine (Winterthur / CH) and Photo-OFF (Paris /FR).
