Background

Issei Suda was born Kazumasa Suda on April 24, 1940, in Kanda, Tokyo, Japan.

Education

Suda first studied at Toyo University but dropped out in 1961. He received his first camera, a Rolleiflex, from his father when he entered the Tokyo College of Photography, from which he graduated in 1962.

Career

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. He began traveling throughout Japan, capturing people on city streets and at traditional festivals, and the patterns and textures he would find in his surroundings. These travels have resulted in such celebrated series as “Fushi Kaden” (1978) and “Human Memory” (1996), full of extraordinary, surprising, and surreal moments that Suda has an uncanny knack for pinpointing with his camera. His work began to appear in photography magazines, earning him early recognition in Japan and abroad.

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 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.

Achievements

• Suda has been the recipient of many Japanese awards, among others the Ken Domon Award in 1996. His work has been frequently exhibited not only in Japan but also in Germany, Austria, Belgium, United States, Spain, the Netherlands, China, and South Korea. His work is housed in museum collections in Japan, Germany, United States, and France.
  
  A Newcomer's Award from the Photographic Society of Japan for Fushi Kaden catapulted Suda into the limelight in 1976. He further received the Photographic Society of Japan’s Annual Award for the exhibition of the “Monogusa Syui” series in 1983, followed in ’85 by the 1st Domestic Photography Award at Higashikawa for “Nichijo no danpen”. In 1997, his book Human Memory received several awards including the Domon Ken Prize. In 2013, his large-scale retrospective exhibition “Nagi no hira - fragments of calm” was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. His works capturing moments between reality and non-reality have lately earned a high reputation also outside Japan.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Rei 2015
  • Early Works 1970-1975 2013
  • Childhood Days 2015
  • Fushikaden 2012

• photography

  • Shinden, Adachi-ku

    1981

  • Iiwaki-shi, Ibaraki

    1992

  • Higashi-Oi, Shinagawa-ku

    1992

  • Yushima Tokyo from Anonymous Men and Women

    1977

  • Yokote Akita from Minyo Sanga

    1979

  • Ayame matsuri Mizumoto-Park Katsushika Tokyo from Fushikaden

    1976

  • Yanaka Tokyo from Anonymous Men and Women

    1977

  • Cicadas Songs in Ou

    1972

  • Miuramisaki Kanagawa from Fushikaden

    1977

  • Monogusa Shui from Oi Tokyo

    1982

  • Soma Fukushima from Minyo Sanga

    1979

  • Yushima Tokyo from Anonymous Men and Women

    1977

  • Akita Cicadas Songs in Ou

    1972

  • Nagano Cicadas Songs in Ou

    1972

  • Kanda Tokyo from 'Summer...'

    1969

  • Tokyo from 'Passing Summer'

    1969

  • Ume Matsuri Ogose Saitama from 'Fushikaden'

    1976

  • Asakusa-Jinja, Taito-ku

    1976

  • Asakusa-Jinja, Taito-ku

    1981

  • Nishiogu, Arakawa-ku

    1981

  • Kitakojiya, Ota-ku

    1981

  • Chichibu, Saitama

    1972

  • Amanohashibate, Kyoto

    1979

  • Onagawa, Miyagi

    1977

  • Ginza, Chuo-ku

    1981

  • Ina, Nagano

    1979

  • Shibadaimon, Minato-ku

    1977

  • Akabanedai, Kita-ku

    1981

  • Narihiya, Sumida-ku

    1977

  • Yanagawa-shi, Fukuoka

    1979

  • Nishinippori, Arakawa-ku

    1980

  • Nishinari-ku Tengachaya

    1978

  • Miyazu, Kyoto

    1979

  • Tsukudohachiman-cho, Shinjuku-ku

    1984

  • Gujoshirotori, Gifu

    1983

  • Gujohachiman, Gifu

    1978

Connections

There is no information on whether Issei Suda was ever married or had any children.

References

• Issei Suda