Hajime Sawatari was born in Tokyo in 1940. He 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’s photographs are primarily of women and girls. He 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.
