I’ve Spent 3 Incredible Days As A King In A Japanese Slum In Osaka And Photographed It
I’m David Tesinsky from Prague and I’m an independent photographer of the subcultures, urban cultures, street stories and people’s stories in general AKA reportage/social documentary photography.
While I was visiting Japan I’ve heard about the Airin Chiku slum in Osaka and firstly people told me not to go there alone and if I would really do that then definitely don’t bring my camera along.
It was not just a great experience but the local citizens in the slum were not only super welcoming but they made me feel like a king as they were treating me like one.
Most of Japanese people don’t have a clue that there is a slum in Japan. You can only see the groups of grandmas and grandpas drinking wine, sake and smoking the cigarettes all days.
They did not let me buy myself a beer or smoke my own cigarette. They were arguing between each other who will buy me the next beer and when I was in half of a beer, sometimes the others took it, thrown it away and put another fresh and new beer in front of me.
They had one harmonica and one guitar in the whole slum. I did play as well, i played for example “Karma Police” from Radiohead or Nirvana songs while the whole slum was watching me and smiling. Probably we made our days to each other. Even though they live in quite poor condition in the very last day the pictured man with guitar came to me and he was giving me his guitar and said “presento”. In Japan you should not decline a present so I had to take it.
Aw and btw, we did not speak any similar language so it was a great proof that we don’t really need to talk when we can act, feel and laugh.
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