Tomasz Gudzowaty: SUMO

Tomasz Gudzowaty

Softcover | 17.78 x 4.06 x 22.86 cm | 432 pp

Hatje Cantz | 2023 | 9783775751957

Rare & Collectable

The Polish photographer and filmmaker Tomasz Gudzowaty is actually known for his perfection – clear compositions, precisely chosen image frames, carefully considered down to the last detail. However, the approach to his Sumo series is completely different.

For his photographic tribute to the Japanese national sport Sumō, Gudzowaty confronts his subject with the rebellious aesthetic of ‘are-bure-bokeh,’ which means rough, blurred, out of focus. This style developed in Japan in the 1960s as a countercurrent to the prevailing norm of photojournalism of the time.

In this series, Gudzowaty photographs not only the wrestlers in the throes of combat, but also life within the training stables where these young men live, eat and sleep together. The result is an extension of Gudzowaty’s previous documentary work, and a stunning black-and-white portrait of a remarkable sport within a society strongly shaped by both tradition and modernity.