An illuminating introduction to little-known photographer Issei Suda, who captured the soul of Japan old and new.
The work of Issei Suda (1940β2019) is distinct in contemporary avant-garde Japanese photography for its celebration of the beauty of the everyday. His black and white pictures reflect on apparent banality of urban life, capturing βthe little surprises usually ignored in our worldβ: the shadow of a figure, the shapes of the street, the expressions on stranger's faces. Sudaβs practice revealed the tensions between old and new Japan, juxtaposing the ingrained visual traditions of Japanese culture with the prevailing western vocabulary of fashion, advertising and leisure, as seen through his observant and tender lens.