"Snack" is the debut photo book by Japanese photographer Yamada Naoko .
"Welcome. It seems like something good happened today."
A bar is a place where you are greeted with such words. You drop in on your way home from work, have a chat, vent your frustrations, and sometimes even get a gentle scolding from the hostess. It's not just a bar, it's a small social gathering place where people can meet face to face.
After working in a studio and as an assistant at a photography agency, Yamada went freelance and started working at a bar to make a living, where he met the "mama" women. They were strong, strict, and also endlessly kind. Their attentive attention to customers, their consideration for staff, and the determination and sex appeal they exuded. He was moved by their appearance and began to feel the desire to "photograph the mama."
That was the start of a 10-year journey. From Sapporo in the north to Ishigaki Island in the south, she traveled across the Japanese archipelago, visiting snack bars in every region. This book features a carefully selected selection of 164 bars and a total of 177 hostesses. Across 296 full-color pages, her life-size portraits capture the unique atmosphere of each region.
Snack bars are not places at the cutting edge of modern trends. Rather, they are spaces that seem somewhat old-fashioned and left behind. But perhaps it is precisely for this reason that they have functioned as places where people can support each other and continue to put down roots in the local area. This book also documents the costumes and attire of the hostesses who worked at the bars that night. From glittering dresses to modest one-piece dresses, to the smallest details of hairstyles and makeup, the atmosphere of each individual's life and era is imprinted there.
Each house has its own night and its own story. Through the portraits of strong and kind women, the Japanese nightscape quietly emerges.
