Daughters and jumping fathers

[68neko]

The mythic “salaryman,” in shirt, suit and tie, has been an icon of urban culture in Japan since the 1920s. Usually cast as a hierarchy-minded, unimaginative, binge-drinking manager type, the salaryman’s corporate loyalty is legendary, his sleep deprivation heroic. “Fun” is not among his traditional descriptors.

But Tokyo-based photographer Yuki Aoyama is out to change that. His latest series captures Japanese businessmen leaping with joy next to their daughters, who stand frozen in the universal discomfort of teens whose dads are trying to be cool.

“Salarymen are very common ‘creatures’ or ‘figures’ in my country, who do not seem  to have any original personality, [due to] the same or similar colors of suits and shoes,” says Aoyama, 36. “I wanted to bring out their hidden individuality by making them jump.”

Aoyama’s series, published as a book in Mar. 2015, is called SOLARYMEN With Daughters!

Shot over three years in locations all across Japan, the photo series is part of SOLARYMEN, a 10-year project to investigate and document Japan’s office workers. The neologism “solarymen” combines Japanese word sora (sky) with “salarymen.”

None of the daughters were asked to pose, says Aoyama, although each father was invited to jump any way he liked. “I believe it expresses an ideal relationship between father and daughter,” he says. “When a father jumps in front of his own daughter—which doesn’t tend to happen so often!—the father makes his best effort.”

lol I can't imagine my father doing anything more than a cursory hop, but as the photographer says, ". . . the father makes his best effort."

See more here.

[rawR]

They all look so young.

This one looks like sister and brother, rather than daughter and father.

[68neko]

Sorry, the link wasn't working so I fixed it. Reference page

If you look at the source website, it gives information on the pairs. In the case you mentioned, the father is relatively young. Only 30 and his daughter is 11.


The oldest father in the bunch is 56 but his jump is still pretty good. He's obviously trying hard for the sake of his daughter. 

[Kuro Ken]

I'm impressed that they have better jumping skills than i do.

[thas]

This is actually really cute. I'm amazed out how high some of them can jump.