From The Swap: Photos of Music by Nazareth Kawakami 

April 28 - June 1, 2023
Opening Reception, Friday, 4/28, 7-9 pm.

"The Swamp" is what a lot of friends/journalists/punters call the front & center of the crowd - the place of heat and violence and joy where the pit is.  The swamp is the point from which most of the photos were shot.  I'll also be slanging some photo zines (gloriously laid out by Love 4 Sale) and probably giving away some tote bags or tees or some other dumb merch.  Special thanks to @campbelljmilligan for the flyer, @lookschill @justinaledia for the zine hook up, and of course, @treehousehawaii for taking care of me all these years."

Artists Statement:

At a festival in Oxford, Murder Capital played a very intense set. They owned the crowd and the pit. An NME journalist I met there looked at it and said, ‘into the swamp’ before shoving toward the front and center of the crowd. A year earlier, at a Strokes show in Manhattan, a friend and I, crushed at the front and center of the crowd, high on mushrooms and a little bit of LSD, yelled to each other in desperation, ‘we need to get out of the swamp!’ The Swamp is the hot, violent, sweaty center of the crowd at a show - bodies entranced, caught in the grip of music. Many if not most of the images featured were taken from a position within the Swamp.

The body of work showcases the visual translation of the effect that music has on a group of people experiencing it together, as well as the peripheral experiences of those who are making the music - the headaches, the blisters, the sound checks, the warm beers, the dust in lungs, the sleepless nights in a van, the discomfort. From Honolulu to LA to New York City to Seattle to London to Paris, these are all photos of music.

All work was printed in a darkroom by hand on Fuji Crystal Archive and Ilford Multigrade Satin RC at Gowanus Public Darkroom and Asuna’s Color Darkroom in Brooklyn. Photos shot on Fuji Color 400 and Ilford HP5+, and on a Canon F1, a Nikon FM2, an Olympus Stylus Infinity, a Contax T3, and a Hasselblad 503CM. 

Naz Kawakami is a photojournalist from Kaimuki. He lives in Brooklyn and is the Editor in Chief of Monster Children. 

@nazkawakami

Thanks: 
Been Stellar, Catcher, Alex G, Chris Rohrer, Chad Hiyakumoto, Love 4 Sale, Campbell Milligan, Crombie, Holden Mandrial-Santos, Anna Atkinson and Bobby Asato.