Photographer Hiroyuki Suzuki
“Tool” for “Needs”
In building the right tools for our needs, the Japanese breathe a soul into their products—even into kitchen knives.
Producer, Author and Photographer Hiroyuki Suzuki has produced many Junko Koshino Fashion Collections in Paris, Beijing, New York and the opening dinner event of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2008. A Tokyo Journal columnist, he is also the author of Yuki et Maria, which is the sequel to the opera Madam Butterfly, I Am Myself Promise and A Moment. He began his career as a photographer in 2006 and the core concept of his photography is A Moment. He has photographed construction sites around the world including the Metro of Dubai, Tokyo International Airport, the Tokyo Gate Bridge, the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway and the renovation of Tokyo Train Station. His photograph exhibitions have been held in Washington, D.C., Shanghai, Beijing and numerous locations throughout Japan.
In building the right tools for our needs, the Japanese breathe a soul into their products—even into kitchen knives.
A photograph enables us to permanently own the scenery or subject we see in the viewfinder by capturing what is right in front of us with a camera. Sometimes it creates an unusual space beyond our imagination.
Of course, it is nothing more than coincidence when one encounters an exciting subject and a satisfactory shot is only possible when all the conditions are perfect. A photo shoot might be a journey to find a lucky coincidence.
LOOKING over his collection of photos and prints that were exhibited at the “Tokyo” photography exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum, most of Suzuki’s work focuses on large-scale ongoing construction projects in big cities. The lighting gives his subjects an imposing, dignified presence and a somewhat solemn appearance. These images convey a rich sense of structure and a gloomy, downcast mood, using an overwhelmingly black-andwhite palette. Amid this jumble infrastructure, however, Suzuki presents us with a simple vision. His critical, philosophizing eye exudes a certain aura that stares down the urban clamor of the city and lurches across the frame at the viewer – something that prompted me quite naturally to think of the gaze that often crops up in our conversations. Suzuki is an artist who has an excellent eye. This facility almost certainly owes itself to his long-standing collaborations with Junko Koshino, as well as his keen interest in the humanities, the great issues that confront society today, and the teachings of Eastern philosophy.