Faceless employees in dark suits and tidal waves of sticky notes form the surreal visual language of Ganbatte, a photo series exploring the strains of Japan's corporate environment. Created by Copenhagen-based Argentine visual artist Jairo Alvarez, the images transform the mundane fixtures of corporate life into striking metaphors for the relentless pressures placed on office workers.
The series focuses on the daily reality of Japan's "salarymen"—white-collar workers whose professional routines are often defined by grueling workdays, strict conformity, and institutional expectations. Rather than documenting office routines literally, Alvarez uses staged, dreamlike compositions to bring out the underlying tension between demanding professional duties and the human need for private life.
Throughout the series, Alvarez also explores the juxtaposition and unexpected harmony between modern work habits and older Japanese values. Corporate attire and towering stacks of paperwork appear alongside references to tradition, faith, and the natural world, pointing to a persistent struggle between external economic obligations and inner spiritual life.
Featured as part of the Head On photo festival along the Bondi beach promenade, the exhibition brings the closed world of Japan's corporate offices into open air. By turning ordinary details like office suits and bureaucratic paperwork into surreal imagery, Alvarez's photographs invite viewers to reconsider the emotional cost of unyielding workplace devotion.