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record producer, Chris Thomas. Later in the decade,
for me, once that photo was taken, it already belonged
Sukita worked extensively with Yellow Magic Orchestra,
to the past.”
accompanying them on their first world tour.
With the new wave of punk rock sweeping the UK,
In April 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop visited
Sukita returned to London to shoot around Vivienne
Japan to promote Iggy’s debut solo album The Idiot,
Westwood’s Kings’ Road boutique and the some of the
which Bowie had produced. As neither musician had
upcoming artists and bands including, The Stranglers,
concert engagements, Sukita suggested an impromptu
Adam Ant, Tom Robinson, Throbbing Gristle, and
photo session. Bowie asked Yacco to find several black
Elvis Costello.
leather jackets, which she rented for the day. Sukita was able to borrow a tiny studio in Harajuku and shot both musicians for one hour each, using a door frame in the foreground to provide a rougher ‘feel’. For his session, Iggy Pop had bought some wooden geta to mimic Torasan, the famous Japanese movie character one of whose movies he had watched on the plane over.
Bowie toured Japan again in December 1978, and spent the next month in Kyoto with this son, although March 1980, Bowie returned to Kyoto, accompanied by his long-time assistant Coco Schwab, to shoot two television commercials for the shochu company Takara Shuzo. In between work, Sukita and Yacco arranged impromptu photo sessions at Bowie’sryokan, walking
Bowie chose Sukita’s favourite, marked with a red dot,
around Kyoto’s streets and markets, riding the subway,
as the cover of his forthcoming album Heroes. With that
and visiting clubs and bars incognito.
part of his. That choice brought us together even more than before, and united us during a time of change in both our careers.’ Bowie’s unusual pose referenced the angular gestures of the German painter Erich Heckel’s Young Man print of 1910 and 1917 painting Roquairol, which had also inspired the cover image of Iggy’s The Idiot, shot by Andy Kent. The Heroes session changed Sukita’s approach to portraiture. He now prefers to let his subjects adopt poses and gestures by themselves, while keenly observing their ’worldview’. The Heroes cover image was to join the Aladdin Sane cover image as one of rock’s most iconic photographs and was voted 1997’s cover of the year in a Melody Maker poll. In 2013 and to Sukita’s surprise, the image was to be reused, hidden behind a white square box, in Jonathan Barnbrook’s design for the cover of Bowie’s penultimate album The Next Day. In 2014, Bowie again paid homage to the work in an Instagram post which replicated the pose in a Daft Punk helmet. Although
New York, 1970
Sukita was only able to photograph him in concert. In
Of the twenty images Sukita sent to Berlin for review,
selection, Sukita considered that ‘my work had become
Filming “Throw Away Tour Books, Let’s Rally in the Streets”, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1971.
The early 1980s were a prolific time for Sukita’s work with both Japanese and Western rock and jazz musicians, including Madness, Culture Club, David Byrne, Cyndi Lauper, Adrian Belew, David Sylvain, Billy Joel, Ron Carter, Ray Charles, Minako Yoshida, Masami Tsuchiya, Sheena & the Rokkets, and Kenji Sawada.
‘With Cyndi Lauper, New York, 1987
‘With David Bowie & Iggy Pop, Haneda Airport, Tokyo, 1977
He also continued to work with David Bowie on the 1983 Serious Moonlight Japan tour and at the end of the decade took the cover images for Bowie’s short-lived band Tin Machine’s eponymous debut album. Returning to video work in 1984, Sukita had directed a short horror film called ‘Gakidama/Ghost Soul’. The following year he collaborated with the renowned art director Eiko Ishioka on Paul Shrader’s controversial film Mishima: A Life on Four Chapters, co-produced by Francis Coppola and George Lucas. Sukita joined Ishioka in California and New York to take production stills and shot her elaborate film sets on location on Tokyo.
Sukita remains very proud of the image, after the
During the visit to New York, Sukita saw Jim Jarmusch’s
session, however, it was time to move on – “It became an
Stranger Than Paradise, which impressed him enough
immediate classic, an eternal image like the album but,
to try to contact the director. These solicitations
Sukita with Marc and Mickey, Pelling+Cross studio, London, 1972
‘With Joe Strummer on the set of “Mystery Train”, Memphis, USA, 1989
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record producer, Chris Thomas. Later in the decade,
for me, once that photo was taken, it already belonged
Sukita worked extensively with Yellow Magic Orchestra,
to the past.”
accompanying them on their first world tour.
With the new wave of punk rock sweeping the UK,
In April 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop visited
Sukita returned to London to shoot around Vivienne
Japan to promote Iggy’s debut solo album The Idiot,
Westwood’s Kings’ Road boutique and the some of the
which Bowie had produced. As neither musician had
upcoming artists and bands including, The Stranglers,
concert engagements, Sukita suggested an impromptu
Adam Ant, Tom Robinson, Throbbing Gristle, and
photo session. Bowie asked Yacco to find several black
Elvis Costello.
leather jackets, which she rented for the day. Sukita was able to borrow a tiny studio in Harajuku and shot both musicians for one hour each, using a door frame in the foreground to provide a rougher ‘feel’. For his session, Iggy Pop had bought some wooden geta to mimic Torasan, the famous Japanese movie character one of whose movies he had watched on the plane over.
Bowie toured Japan again in December 1978, and spent the next month in Kyoto with this son, although March 1980, Bowie returned to Kyoto, accompanied by his long-time assistant Coco Schwab, to shoot two television commercials for the shochu company Takara Shuzo. In between work, Sukita and Yacco arranged impromptu photo sessions at Bowie’sryokan, walking
Bowie chose Sukita’s favourite, marked with a red dot,
around Kyoto’s streets and markets, riding the subway,
as the cover of his forthcoming album Heroes. With that
and visiting clubs and bars incognito.
part of his. That choice brought us together even more than before, and united us during a time of change in both our careers.’ Bowie’s unusual pose referenced the angular gestures of the German painter Erich Heckel’s Young Man print of 1910 and 1917 painting Roquairol, which had also inspired the cover image of Iggy’s The Idiot, shot by Andy Kent. The Heroes session changed Sukita’s approach to portraiture. He now prefers to let his subjects adopt poses and gestures by themselves, while keenly observing their ’worldview’. The Heroes cover image was to join the Aladdin Sane cover image as one of rock’s most iconic photographs and was voted 1997’s cover of the year in a Melody Maker poll. In 2013 and to Sukita’s surprise, the image was to be reused, hidden behind a white square box, in Jonathan Barnbrook’s design for the cover of Bowie’s penultimate album The Next Day. In 2014, Bowie again paid homage to the work in an Instagram post which replicated the pose in a Daft Punk helmet. Although
New York, 1970
Sukita was only able to photograph him in concert. In
Of the twenty images Sukita sent to Berlin for review,
selection, Sukita considered that ‘my work had become
Filming “Throw Away Tour Books, Let’s Rally in the Streets”, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1971.
The early 1980s were a prolific time for Sukita’s work with both Japanese and Western rock and jazz musicians, including Madness, Culture Club, David Byrne, Cyndi Lauper, Adrian Belew, David Sylvain, Billy Joel, Ron Carter, Ray Charles, Minako Yoshida, Masami Tsuchiya, Sheena & the Rokkets, and Kenji Sawada.
‘With Cyndi Lauper, New York, 1987
‘With David Bowie & Iggy Pop, Haneda Airport, Tokyo, 1977
He also continued to work with David Bowie on the 1983 Serious Moonlight Japan tour and at the end of the decade took the cover images for Bowie’s short-lived band Tin Machine’s eponymous debut album. Returning to video work in 1984, Sukita had directed a short horror film called ‘Gakidama/Ghost Soul’. The following year he collaborated with the renowned art director Eiko Ishioka on Paul Shrader’s controversial film Mishima: A Life on Four Chapters, co-produced by Francis Coppola and George Lucas. Sukita joined Ishioka in California and New York to take production stills and shot her elaborate film sets on location on Tokyo.
Sukita remains very proud of the image, after the
During the visit to New York, Sukita saw Jim Jarmusch’s
session, however, it was time to move on – “It became an
Stranger Than Paradise, which impressed him enough
immediate classic, an eternal image like the album but,
to try to contact the director. These solicitations
Sukita with Marc and Mickey, Pelling+Cross studio, London, 1972
‘With Joe Strummer on the set of “Mystery Train”, Memphis, USA, 1989
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As a professional photographer, I believe that the importance of photography lies in its capacity to send a message to others, so the photographer should be responsible not only for the picture he or she takes but also for the way it is presented. – Masayoshi Sukita
Ever since I was young, I always wanted to take photos that would bear witness to what was happening in the world. – Masayoshi Sukita
My father had died in the war and my mother was on her own, facing many economic difficulties raising her children. Even so, I asked her if she would buy me a camera. We were really poor, but I think she understood right from the beginning that I was not being a bratty teenager and she supported me. So, I owe everything to my mother, and the first photo I ever took was of her, which I still think is the most beautiful photo I have ever taken.
– Masayoshi Sukita
After graduating from high school, having failed the university entrance exam, I attend a cram school for a year. My next-door neighbour was a young engineer working at the Nagasaki dockyards, and he had a passion for photography. On his bookshelves were issues of a photographic magazine he had collected over the years and I devoured then. I spent more time getting to know photography than studying for the entrance exams and, as a result, I failed to pass for the second time. – Masayoshi Sukita
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As a professional photographer, I believe that the importance of photography lies in its capacity to send a message to others, so the photographer should be responsible not only for the picture he or she takes but also for the way it is presented. – Masayoshi Sukita
Ever since I was young, I always wanted to take photos that would bear witness to what was happening in the world. – Masayoshi Sukita
My father had died in the war and my mother was on her own, facing many economic difficulties raising her children. Even so, I asked her if she would buy me a camera. We were really poor, but I think she understood right from the beginning that I was not being a bratty teenager and she supported me. So, I owe everything to my mother, and the first photo I ever took was of her, which I still think is the most beautiful photo I have ever taken.
– Masayoshi Sukita
After graduating from high school, having failed the university entrance exam, I attend a cram school for a year. My next-door neighbour was a young engineer working at the Nagasaki dockyards, and he had a passion for photography. On his bookshelves were issues of a photographic magazine he had collected over the years and I devoured then. I spent more time getting to know photography than studying for the entrance exams and, as a result, I failed to pass for the second time. – Masayoshi Sukita
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‘If you think about it, a film can only exist within the darkness of a cinema. The world of the film ends the moment the lights come on; it just disappears. Even the worlds of Polanski and Ōshima Nagisa and Antonioni, all of them disappears when you turn on the lights. Think you could show a film on the side of a building during daylight? I loved Humphrey Bogart. I loved Cinemascope, town shooting, love scenes. I loved Mr. Sukita, the cameraman; Mr. Terayama, the director; Mr. Usui, the assistant. The whole of that world, but I don’t love the cinema. Goodbye. Goodbye, cinema. - “Kitagawa Eimei” the main character at the end of Suji Terayama’s 1971 film “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in The Streets”
Sukita is very thoughtful. I know he has a sense of humour because I have seen it. He is a very observational person, and that makes him a very visual artist. He always sees everything. Sukita is a master photographer, especially of portraits and rock and roll. – Jim Jarmusch
I love Sukita-san’s eyes... [they] are active yet unobtrusive, and his striking photographs reflect all of this.
‘Just as he uses his imaginary world, his human-powered airplane, to escape from the alienated reality of everyday life, from Terayama’s point of view also cinema constitutes an imaginary world that ultimately escapes from reality. The symbol of self-abolition appears at the end of the film, when he contemplates how the human-powered airplane burns.
Sukita was one of the first to embrace digital - I was surprised because I had thought that photographers with such long careers would be more particular about film photography.
– Ferran de Vargas
– Hirokazu Kore-eda
– Jim Jarmusch
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I would never have believed that Sukita-san had taken so many photographs over so many years. From the early Ziggy shows, including the well-known Rainbow concert in London, to the market trips in Tokyo, temples in Kyoto and even the subway adventures, it seems Sukita-san got them all. – David Bowie
I am always surpised that the the coolest photos I have seen seen of Bowie and many other international artists were taken by someone from my hometown.
Nobody recorded the Ziggy and Aladdin Sane eras better than Sukita, but his style evolved in sync with the the artist to produce the defining images of the “Heroes” period and beyond.
On the day of the first shoot, there was a famous photographer called David Bailey, and he was shooting Bowie during the day, and I was going to shoot Bowie during the evening. It felt really competitive because I already knew who David Bailey was, so there was a kind of pressure. I researched David Bowie’s favourite wine and got a bottle. Allday, he had already worked on something else, so when it was my turn, I thought, “Okay, let’s open up some wine and relax.
– Nicholas Coleridge
– Masayoshi Sukita
– Lily Franky
It was 1972 that I started, The first time I took pictures of David Bowie, and I am still looking for I felt very relaxed. I was David Bowie even now. nine years older than – Masayoshi Sukita him, and I already had significant experience as a portrait and It’s very hard for me fashion photographer. It was later, after that to accept that Sukita-san first shooting, that my has been snapping away interest for David Bowie at me since 1972, but that grew. I wanted to get to really is the case. I suspect that know him better. I was it’s because whenever he’s asked fascinated by the way Bowie expressed himself. me to do a session, I conjure He was no ordinary up in my mind’s eye the sweet, performer. He created creative and big-hearted man a new world for himself who has always made these that centred around a potentially tedious affairs so character from outer space, and he was the relaxed and painless. May he alien star. click into eternity. – Masayoshi Sukita
– David Bowie
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There are so many people I wish I could’ve photographed, but I didn’t. I must also admit that my interests are constantly evolving. Now I’m 82. I recently went back to Kyushu, to organise a few exhibitions of my work. Nature is luxuriant over there, so I started taking landscape pictures. I’m particularly interested in water. In Japan, we recently had a terrible tsunami that devastated entire areas and killed many people, so I started considering the different aspects of water. Water can be either terrifying and relaxing. I’m fascinated by its multiple aspects. – Masayoshi Sukita
Creating something great is Sukita-san moves in passion – your top priority. It’s everything. a young boy who has turned 80. You dedicate years of your life – Guido Hariri to it, and it’s the reason you eat each day; the reason you live. The desire to express something through photos has been with me since I was in photography school and I’d say it’ll remain with me until I die. Photographs are a huge, universal; photographs are love. – Masayoshi Sukita
Spiritual force defies explanation. We experience it in silence and without fanfare. Spiritual force touches us and flows from us, like the ripples on a still pond. Spiritual force is concentration and inner energy. Strength of intellect and poetry of the heart conspire to create an essential, wordless bond between man and nature. Spiritual force is the fundamental secret shared by artists and is the reason art so vitally inspires. Spirit force or ki, is everything. And without ki, there is nothing.
– Masayoshi Sukita
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I think they found something in each other that they didn’t have themselves. David found wildness in Iggy; Iggy found intelligence in David. It always seemed to me that this was the reason they worked very well with each other. They always looked like they had a great relationship. – Masayoshi Sukita
We shot Iggy at the same studio on the same day we shot ‘Heroes’, and one of the shots was for his ‘Party’ album cover. One of the pictures taken at that time was used for the cover of his “Party” album. Later on, Iggy apologised that he forgot to credit Sukita-san on this album cover. In response, Sukita just said, ‘Iggy is a good guy’. – Yacco Takahashi
Of all the photographers I have know, I trust Sukita the most.
– Iggy Pop
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‘If you think about it, a film can only exist within the darkness of a cinema. The world of the film ends the moment the lights come on; it just disappears. Even the worlds of Polanski and Ōshima Nagisa and Antonioni, all of them disappears when you turn on the lights. Think you could show a film on the side of a building during daylight? I loved Humphrey Bogart. I loved Cinemascope, town shooting, love scenes. I loved Mr. Sukita, the cameraman; Mr. Terayama, the director; Mr. Usui, the assistant. The whole of that world, but I don’t love the cinema. Goodbye. Goodbye, cinema. - “Kitagawa Eimei” the main character at the end of Suji Terayama’s 1971 film “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in The Streets”
Sukita is very thoughtful. I know he has a sense of humour because I have seen it. He is a very observational person, and that makes him a very visual artist. He always sees everything. Sukita is a master photographer, especially of portraits and rock and roll. – Jim Jarmusch
I love Sukita-san’s eyes... [they] are active yet unobtrusive, and his striking photographs reflect all of this.
‘Just as he uses his imaginary world, his human-powered airplane, to escape from the alienated reality of everyday life, from Terayama’s point of view also cinema constitutes an imaginary world that ultimately escapes from reality. The symbol of self-abolition appears at the end of the film, when he contemplates how the human-powered airplane burns.
Sukita was one of the first to embrace digital - I was surprised because I had thought that photographers with such long careers would be more particular about film photography.
– Ferran de Vargas
– Hirokazu Kore-eda
– Jim Jarmusch
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‘If you think about it, a film can only exist within the darkness of a cinema. The world of the film ends the moment the lights come on; it just disappears. Even the worlds of Polanski and Ōshima Nagisa and Antonioni, all of them disappears when you turn on the lights. Think you could show a film on the side of a building during daylight? I loved Humphrey Bogart. I loved Cinemascope, town shooting, love scenes. I loved Mr. Sukita, the cameraman; Mr. Terayama, the director; Mr. Usui, the assistant. The whole of that world, but I don’t love the cinema. Goodbye. Goodbye, cinema. - “Kitagawa Eimei” the main character at the end of Suji Terayama’s 1971 film “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in The Streets”
Sukita is very thoughtful. I know he has a sense of humour because I have seen it. He is a very observational person, and that makes him a very visual artist. He always sees everything. Sukita is a master photographer, especially of portraits and rock and roll. – Jim Jarmusch
I love Sukita-san’s eyes... [they] are active yet unobtrusive, and his striking photographs reflect all of this.
‘Just as he uses his imaginary world, his human-powered airplane, to escape from the alienated reality of everyday life, from Terayama’s point of view also cinema constitutes an imaginary world that ultimately escapes from reality. The symbol of self-abolition appears at the end of the film, when he contemplates how the human-powered airplane burns.
Sukita was one of the first to embrace digital - I was surprised because I had thought that photographers with such long careers would be more particular about film photography.
– Ferran de Vargas
– Hirokazu Kore-eda
– Jim Jarmusch
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There are so many people I wish I could’ve photographed, but I didn’t. I must also admit that my interests are constantly evolving. Now I’m 82. I recently went back to Kyushu, to organise a few exhibitions of my work. Nature is luxuriant over there, so I started taking landscape pictures. I’m particularly interested in water. In Japan, we recently had a terrible tsunami that devastated entire areas and killed many people, so I started considering the different aspects of water. Water can be either terrifying and relaxing. I’m fascinated by its multiple aspects. – Masayoshi Sukita
Creating something great is Sukita-san moves in passion – your top priority. It’s everything. a young boy who has turned 80. You dedicate years of your life – Guido Hariri to it, and it’s the reason you eat each day; the reason you live. The desire to express something through photos has been with me since I was in photography school and I’d say it’ll remain with me until I die. Photographs are a huge, universal; photographs are love. – Masayoshi Sukita
Spiritual force defies explanation. We experience it in silence and without fanfare. Spiritual force touches us and flows from us, like the ripples on a still pond. Spiritual force is concentration and inner energy. Strength of intellect and poetry of the heart conspire to create an essential, wordless bond between man and nature. Spiritual force is the fundamental secret shared by artists and is the reason art so vitally inspires. Spirit force or ki, is everything. And without ki, there is nothing.
– Masayoshi Sukita
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There are so many people I wish I could’ve photographed, but I didn’t. I must also admit that my interests are constantly evolving. Now I’m 82. I recently went back to Kyushu, to organise a few exhibitions of my work. Nature is luxuriant over there, so I started taking landscape pictures. I’m particularly interested in water. In Japan, we recently had a terrible tsunami that devastated entire areas and killed many people, so I started considering the different aspects of water. Water can be either terrifying and relaxing. I’m fascinated by its multiple aspects. – Masayoshi Sukita
Creating something great is Sukita-san moves in passion – your top priority. It’s everything. a young boy who has turned 80. You dedicate years of your life – Guido Hariri to it, and it’s the reason you eat each day; the reason you live. The desire to express something through photos has been with me since I was in photography school and I’d say it’ll remain with me until I die. Photographs are a huge, universal; photographs are love. – Masayoshi Sukita
Spiritual force defies explanation. We experience it in silence and without fanfare. Spiritual force touches us and flows from us, like the ripples on a still pond. Spiritual force is concentration and inner energy. Strength of intellect and poetry of the heart conspire to create an essential, wordless bond between man and nature. Spiritual force is the fundamental secret shared by artists and is the reason art so vitally inspires. Spirit force or ki, is everything. And without ki, there is nothing.
– Masayoshi Sukita
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I think you found my playful nature. I think you found my playful nature. Sir Paul Smith Sir Paul Smith C
page Noga
page in ‘T Noga
page ‘East Fuku
page Noga
page Jean 1957
page 1959
page Fuku
page Naga
page Taga
page of at
214 214
I think you found my playful nature. I think you found my playful nature. Sir Paul Smith Sir Paul Smith C
page Noga
page in ‘T Noga
page ‘East Fuku
page Noga
page Jean 1957
page 1959
page Fuku
page Naga
page Taga
page of at