Issei Suda – My Japan is an introduction to his life’s work, from the 1960s until the publication of his final book in 2018. It includes photographs from his early days for the avant-garde theatre troupe Tenjo Sajiki, and iconic series, such as Fushi Kaden and Waga Tokyo 100.
Publisher: Fw:Books
Associated Exhibition: Issei Suda – My Japan at FOMU – Fotomuseum Antwerpen -Belgium- (07.05.2021 – 03.10.2021)
For Issei Suda (1940–2019), photography was a means to document the ordinary and reveal the extraordinary. Traditional country festivals were a favourite subject, but he also saw theatre in Tokyo’s street life.
Suda had a talent for square format compositions and is known for the technical perfection of his black-and-white prints as well as for his unique and surrealistic visual style.
Publisher’s Info
Book Specs: Issei Suda – My Japan published by Fw:Books (2021) | 17 x 20,5 centimeter | 144 pages | duotone + colour | softcover | Text by Frits Gierstberg, edited by Anne Ruygt | Design: Ayumi Higuchi | ISBN 9789490119959 | 21,40 euro. Available here.
Issei Suda (1940-2019) received his first camera, a Rolleiflex, from his father when he entered the Tokyo College of Photography, from which he graduated in 1962. In 1967 Suda began work as the stage and publicity photographer for Tenjo Sajiki, a theatrical troupe directed by poet-playwright Terayama Shuji. The troupe sought to express the mysterious side of everyday life, a theme that Suda continued to pursue after beginning his freelance career in 1971.
In his most famous series of work, Fushi Kaden from 1976, Suda succeeded in capturing the extraordinary that exists within the ordinary. He received high praise for these photographs, that direct our gaze towards another world, and ever since he has continued to publish works that focus on familiar landscapes, commonplace festivals or customs, etc.
He is ranked, not only in Japan but also abroad, together with other photographers whose style presents a uniquely Japanese development of the personal viewpoint, some of his work receiving attention for being peculiarly subjective, while simultaneously providing a new outlook on the standard images of Japan or Tokyo from an ethnological viewpoint.
Suda has been the recipient of many Japanese awards, among others the Ken Domon Award in 1996. Suda passed away in March 2019. Ibasho Gallery
Artist: https://sudaissei.com/official/
Video: Issei Suda on the drama of photography (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)
Related Tags: Japanese