Masked, I advance. — Hotel Alpha In — E-WAX & Nathalie Daoust — Doubt Everything — 2024

Opened in 1979 in Tokyo’s Higashi-Azabu neighbourhood, Hotel Alpha In offers a distinctive setting for Japanese fetish culture. Masked, I advance. takes the reader through all twenty-six of its rooms, photographed by E-WAX, and pairs this architectural record with Nathalie Daoust’s images from Hide & Sex, exhibited at Ginza’s Vanilla Gallery in 2009. The two bodies of work bring the hotel’s designed spaces into dialogue with the people and fantasies associated with them. An interview with Hysteric Glamour founder Nobuhiko Kitamura and contributions by Naohiro Ukawa and Takeshi Hosoya extend the photographs into fashion and subculture. Together, the images and texts document a particular meeting point between interiors, performance and desire.

Technical Sheet
Title: Masked, I advance. — Hotel Alpha In
Photographers: E-WAX and Nathalie Daoust
Publisher: Doubt Everything
Distributor: Mediapal
Publication date: 17 December 2024
Pages: 144
Illustrations: Full colour
Binding: Cloth hardcover
Dimensions: 277 × 205 × 19 mm
Languages: Japanese and English
Book design: Arkham design
Interview: Nobuhiko Kitamura (Hysteric Glamour)
Contributions: Naohiro Ukawa (DOMMUNE) and Takeshi Hosoya (PEEL&LIFT)
Location: Hotel Alpha In, Higashi-Azabu, Tokyo, Japan
ISBN: 9784802134972