Tokyo’s notorious host clubs — night clubs where male ‘hosts’ offer drinks and conversation to female patrons — are the main subject of this new body of work by photographer Chito Yoshida. Titled ‘Love for Sale’, the series of 12 photographs consists of portraits of the hosts and their managers working at Tokyo’s most popular host club, Club Ai, all dressed in the typical host ‘uniform’ of flamboyant suits. Yoshida’s portraits, inevitably influenced by the dreamy and magical settings she usually creates for commercial photography, appear at first to be surreal and fabricated in the over-the-top decoration of the space and the dandy-like dress of her subjects. Nevertheless, her photography manages to penetrate the facade of glitz and poise her subjects have so carefully constructed for their clients, revealing a hidden layer of insecurity, pride and vanity — the very basis of this rather shady aspect of Tokyo’s nightlife. A selection from Chito Yoshida’s ‘Love for Sale’ was recently on display at Scope Miami Beach art fair, at the RARE Gallery booth (2-7 December 2014, booth #F23).