[Japanese]Hajime Sawatari was born in Tokyo in 1940.
Sawatari started publishing his photographs in photography magazines while he was enrolled in Nihon University’s Department of Photography, College of Art. He then took up a job as photographer at Nippon Design Center, Inc., an advertising and design company. Sawatari left the company in 1966 and since then works as a freelance photographer.
Sawatari has received the Japan Advertising Photographers’ Association Award (consolation prize, 1963), the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award (1973) and the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award in Photography (1979).
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Niigata City Art Museum, and Kawasaki City Museum include Sawatari’s photographs in their permanent collections.
Sawatari’s photographs are primarily of women and girls. He has published many photobooks some of which are: “Nadia: Mori no Ningyokan”(The mainichi Newspapers),”Alice”,”Alice from the sea”(Kawade Shobo Shin-sha), “Seiji OZAWA”(Shueisha),”Showa:Hiroko ISAYAMA”(Takarajimasha),”hysteric ten”,”a girl”(hysteric glamour),”Cigar:Rentaro MIKUNI”(Parco Publishing),”60’s”,”60’s 2”(Wise Publishing),”RECORD Extra issue No.1:Daido MORIYAMA×Hajime SAWATARI”,”Kinky”,”Nadia b/w”,”Nadia color”,”Simon,The Actor”(Akio Nagasawa publishing),”Showa 35,JAPAN”(Match And Company),”NAGISA Hotel”(Super Labo),”Rain”(Kokusho Kankokai),“Tenko” (Co-edited with Hanayo, Case Publishing), among others.