World Press Photo Gallery

by 2007 prizewinners

As a sponsor of the World Press Photo 07 exhibition in Toronto, The Walrus is pleased to present a critical analysis of a selection of the images.

Photographer: David Guttenfelder, USA, The Associated Press

Description: Traditionally, Japanese white-collar workers have been able to expect lifelong support and loyalty from their employers, in return for unremitting hard work. A 'salaryman' (a Japanese word that borrows from English) follows a punishing work regime that often affects social and family life. The term carries associations of long working hours, and even karoshi - death caused by overwork. To relieve the tension of their working schedule many salarymen go out drinking at night.

Comment by Bryonie Wise, international production manager, Hatje Cantz:

The power of this image, for me, is the silence it projects. At first, the viewer is flooded with a sense of peace, and then overwhelmed by the unusual beauty of a simple street corner. For one brief moment, there is but one man on this corner, alone with his thoughts, alone in a world that is constantly pushing us, challenging us and changing us.

Here he has the gift -- or is it a curse -- of what we all seek at one time or another: solitude. To be completely alone in such a public setting is an unusual treat we experience at the rarest of times.

We could be led to believe that this the last man in Tokyo - where are all the people? We see the remains of life left behind -- the bicycles, the bags of garbage -- on this corner, we can hear the faint whispers of secrets from those before us. Could this man hold the key to the apokalupsis eschaton -- "revelation at the end of the world"?

--Bryonie Wise returned to Toronto last fall after working for six and a half years at the Aperture Foundation in New York City. She currently works as the International Production Manager for Dr. Cantz'sche Druckerei, a fine art and photography book publisher based in Germany. www.hatjecantz.de/en_index.php

Further reading in The Walrus:
- "The Conspiracy Against Africa" (November 2006)
- "Shifting Sands"(April 2005)

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