One day in 2002 a secret was unfolded in a concealed room. This is a collection of Polaroids that gives a glimpse of the hidden soul of Issei Suda.

Just like there exists no flower that has no name, there are no nameless humans existing in reality.
If we consider those figures that our history books tell us about as protagonists, most human beings are reduced to mere supporting actors. However, needless to point out, a slight change of perspective will present them as subjects of their unique personal histories. While seemingly buried in the casualness of daily life, all of them carry their own individual power and toughness, concealed deep within.
That’s exactly how revolutions used to happen, initiated by such anonymous, ordinary citizens. […] Their time may have been just a passing moment that is long gone, but as a photographer, I seem to feel the repercussions and the significance of their existence still today.

Issei Suda
※Excerpt of a statement made during his lifetime

Editorial note

“Anonymous Men and Women” is a series of one hundred photographs taken between 1976 and 1978 in Tokyo. 49 of them were published in the November 1978 issue of Camera Mainichi, and around the same time, all 100 prints were exhibited at Nikon Salon (Shinjuku/Ginza).
However, these works were not compiled in a photobook at the time of their initial publication, but remained separated up to this day, with several items from the series being included in such photobooks as Waga Tokyo 100 (Nikon Salon Books, 1979: 25 items), Ningen no kioku (Creo, 1996: 3 items), Tokyokei (Zen Photo, 2013: 3 items), and Childhood Days (Akio Nagasawa Publishing, 2015: 3 items), and one being featured at an exhibition in 1982 as part of the “Monogusa Syui” series.
As there is presently no chance to inspect the entire “Anonymous Men and Women” series as it was when it was first released, this book is an attempt to bring all of the one hundred photographs back together and restore the series as Issei Suda had originally envisioned.

The “eye” is the main subject of this photo-book which photographer Suda Issei was working on before sadly passing away in March 2019.

A while ago, I received a request from Issei Suda, asking me for advice regarding a set of photographs he wanted to put together in a book. He explained to me that, among the snapshots he was taking day by day, there were always images containing eyes somewhere in the streets that caught his attention, and that he ended up shooting without really knowing why. But once he had developed those photos, he would quietly stare at the prints feeling that there was something special about them. So his idea was to collect them in a book that would outline what this series is all about. I didn’t even need to look at the pictures, but hearing about Mr. Suda’s plans alone was enough for me to reply to him that I wanted to do an exhibition of those photos, and publish a book of them.
– Afterword (Excerpt) by Akio Nagasawa

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

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