Childhood Days
Gallery hours: 11:00-19:00
Closed on Monday, Tuesday
Akio Nagasawa Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Issei Suda’s exhibition “Childhood Days.”
I don't believe that every person in the world yearns after his or her childhood. Every childhoood has its times of grief and suffering. However, once our childhood days lie far behind us, and we find ourselves approaching the end of our life, I suppose we all remember our time as little kids with the same foudness that we're now looking at our own children with. The photographs were taken in the 1970s and early '80s, and show so-called "children of the Showa era.' In terms of age,they could be my own, but as both the children and myself have experienced the Showa era, it's a generation that I can relate to in terms of sensibility. Among them are some that are prefectly children of their time, with a look that suggests that one can no longer meet such figures nowadays, which makes even me, the one who photographed them, aware of the irreversibility of time. Children are wild, and in a way possess a sort of cruety. So cross-grained grownups may object that one surely can't lump them all together as being cute and pretty.But past days are beautiful days, and the days of our childhood are sweet little memories that we'd want to lock away in a small jewelry box.
-Issei Suda "Chiledhood Days" afterword -
We are looking forward to your visit!
Artist
Issei SUDA
須田一政
Born 1940 in Tokyo. Graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography in 1962. Was hired as house photographer for Shuji Terayama’s experimental theater troupe Tenjo Sajiki in ’67, before commencing his work as a freelance photographer in ‘71. A Newcomer's Award from the Photographic Society of Japan for Fushi Kaden catapulted him 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. Main photo collections include Fushi Kaden (’78), Waga Tokyo 100 (’79), Akai hana – scarlet bloom (2000), Fushi Kaden (definitive edition, 2012), Anonymous Men and Women (’13) and Rei (’15)
Publication
Childhood Days_A
Themed around “childhood days that every grown-up has once gone through”, this collection of photographs ranging from early efforts to recent works includes numerous pictures that were never before published in a photo book.
You can choose from two different images for the cover.
I don’t believe that every person in the world yearns after his or her childhood. Every childhood has its times of grief and suffering. However, once our childhood days lie far behind us, and we find ourselves approaching the end of our life, I suppose we all remember our time as little kids with the same fondness that we’re now looking at our own children with.
– Afterword by Issei Suda
Childhood Days_B
Themed around “childhood days that every grown-up has once gone through”, this collection of photographs ranging from early efforts to recent works includes numerous pictures that were never before published in a photo book.
You can choose from two different images for the cover.
I don’t believe that every person in the world yearns after his or her childhood. Every childhood has its times of grief and suffering. However, once our childhood days lie far behind us, and we find ourselves approaching the end of our life, I suppose we all remember our time as little kids with the same fondness that we’re now looking at our own children with.
– Afterword by Issei Suda