"I give you my life" by Chloé Jafé (Signed)

In 2013, the French artist Chloé Jafé moved to Tokyo with the ambition to meet the women of the Yakuza. But no one enters this mafia, one of the most legendary in the world, without being invited. After spending a year perfecting her Japanese, immersing herself in the codes of a culture miles apart from her own, having been a hostess in a bar and combing the city's red light districts, the lock finally broke in. Through a lucky encounter and out of temerity. Inducted by a Boss, she was able to approach these padlocked clans, their official rituals and gatherings, the taboo and tattooed stories that their kimonos camouflage, and through them, their wives, daughters and mistresses.
 
Women lurking in the shadow of the men to whom they have dedicated their existence, marked on the skin by this dedication which automatically excludes them from society. The “gift of one’s life”, Inochi Azukemasu in Japanese, constitutes the first part of her trilogy.

--

Over the years, Chloé Jafé has developed a style that is both visual and documentary, and viscerally personal. From her 7 years of immersion in Japan (2013-2019), Chloé Jafé has brought back images in steely black and white, sweaty and harsh, tender and fierce, revealing an unprecedented vision of an opaque country.

Her trilogy, comprising the chapters "I give you my life", "Okinawa mon amour" and "How I met Jiro", highlights the little-known and subversive aspects of an archipelago where modesty is de rigueur.

Edition:  First Edition | Signed
Publication Year: 2023
Condition: New
Notes: All items are final sale.