Shinji Abe pursues his subjects in Osaka and Tokyo. His photographs reveal the world of the listless, the displaced, the derelict, the ecstatic. Shooting in the dark, he captures their forms with a powerful flash. These night-time photographs suggest the exhilaration of the hunt, no subject escaping this shocking burst of light.

In daylight, Shinji more often fixes his camera on young girls and aging men dressed as young girls. Even as his approach remains, in the best sense, primitive, his juxtapositions form graphically complex puzzles. Through repeated patterns and parallel gestures, background and foreground converge and intermingle. Along with the centre of the frame, he exploits the force of its edges.

Shinji Abe is represented by third district gallery in Tokyo (www.3rddg.com)

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