Elska, Issue 9 – Yokohama, Japan

Elska is a bi-monthly male photography and culture art-zine on 130 pages of beautifully stroke-able matte paper. Each issue is shot in a different city with men from that city, including not only their photographs but their stories too. It’s a sort of cross between a quasi-intellectual queer pin-up and a sort of sexy anthropology journal.

In this issue:
Issue 09 was made in Yokohama, a city that is actually Japan’s second biggest city (no, it’s not Osaka), and we were excited to explore it along with several local boys who we photographed around town and in their homes. This is our second edition shot in Asia following our successful, if controversial, Taipei issue. But despite being on the same continent, these two cities are worlds apart.

 For one thing, there is an attention to aesthetics in Yokohama that Taipei lacked – think clean and thoughtful versus chaotic and utilitarian. But beyond their façades, it was culture where things really diverged. While there are aspects of Japanese life that are fast-paced, ultra-modern and forward-thinking, there is a very conservative and rigid side too. It’s also a society that is almost impenetrable… even a couple of our expat Yokohama boys discussed their bewilderment and even loneliness being non-Japanese in Japan. Indeed Yokohama was actually a very multicultural city, more than we’d expected before arriving. Inside this issue, beyond the native Japanese men, you’ll meet expats from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and also an American lad (and complete Japanophile) stationed at the nearby Yokosuka U.S Naval Base.

160 pages, including texts in English, Japanese and Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Polish (all with English translations)