The Polish photographer and filmmaker Tomasz Gudzowaty is actually known for his perfection — clear compositions, precisely chosen image frames, carefully considered down to the last detail. However, the approach to his Sumo series is completely different. For his photographic tribute to the Japanese national sport Sumo, Gudzowaty confronts his subject with the rebellious aesthetic of “are-bure-bokeh”, which means rough, blurred, out of focus. This style developed in Japan in the 1960s as a countercurrent to the prevailing norm of photojournalism of the time. With the help of photography, Gudzowaty attempts to create a visual language that is able to capture documents beyond words. With the publication Sumo he presents a previously unknown side of his artistic work.

About the Autor:

Tomasz Gudzowaty (*1971) is a portrait and documentary photographer and filmmaker. His work has been published in many magazines and newspapers, such as National Geographic and Vogue Italia. He has received numerous awards.

Tomasz Gudzowaty became established as a wildlife documentary photographer in 1999, when he won the first of his World Press Photo awards in the nature category with a remarkable image of two cheetah cubs just about to take down their first prey. He has since traveled extensively through- out sub-Saharan Africa, amassing thousands of images of elephants, lions, cheetahs, wildebeest, zebras and other species. In 2008 Gudzowaty documented a remote emperor penguin colony in the Weddell Sea, a project he continued through his work on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Gudzowaty’s wildlife photography is characterized by a technical and aesthetic sophistication that is particularly visible in his depictions of large-scale natural spectacles, such as the annual wildebeest migration in Tanzania or the breeding season on the penguin rookeries. This book captures Gudzowaty’s passion and deep knowledge of his subject: keenly observing both general patterns and minute details, he brings the viewer closer to nature’s inner workings and beauty.