Recruit

Hiroshi Okamoto’s The Recruit was recommended to me, and as soon as I saw it in the video (1) below, I connected with it instantly. This style of presentation embodies many elements that I want to include in my own work. The attached emails, application forms, tickets and other documents add layers to the work, both visually and in terms of adding meaning. The way that they interplay with the images to which they are stuck also creates an interesting dynamic.

The cover replicates an interview form, and the book opens like a file (as if the viewer is assuming the role of an interviewer assessing a candidate.) The inclusion of the paperclip to secure the small passport-style photo of the candidate to the cover is also very effective, and so ubiquitous to the job hunting scene in Japan. (Many of my Japanese friends have gone through this, so it is a familiar sight to me.) Below are some screenshots that sort of demonstrate just how much the emails can move, and the fluidity with which you can flick through them, as if flicking through a file.

The cover looks

These are some more examples of the images in the book. The photobooth photos are exactly like the ones that I am including in my work- the passport photos of myself, and the photobooth photo of Shinya. What I also like is the consistency in these layouts- for example, the receipts for the payments to the side of a square crop (with a little overlay) is quite effective. I believe that this photobook will become a major influence on the layout and flow of my own photobook.

(1) Sitar, M 2017, Hiroshi Okamoto - Recruit, video, viewed 28 Apri 2020, <https://vimeo.com/198837353>

(2) Okamoto, H 2016, Recruit, photographic series, viewed 28 April 2020, <http://hiroshi-okamoto.com/project/recruit>