“I take photos of the friction and frustration I feel on the streets that match my emotions. I walk the streets almost every day and I never get bored of it because I can always feel the current atmosphere of Tokyo. Even if it doesn’t make the news or is dramatic, everyday sights are fascinating to me.”
His work is capable of allowing those who view it to take a different look at street photography in the modern era, its processes, and how much further some artists are capable of pushing the medium. The high contrast black and white of his images draw a connection to the linage of photographers he is a creative descendant of including Daido Moriyama, Eikoh Hosoe, Tomatsu Shomei, and the entire Provoke and VIVO collectives. He has gone on to form his own collective in VoidTokyo, been at the middle of huge controversy involving FujiFilm, and continues to create work that stands out among much of what is created today while carrying on the progress made in past generations of distinct Japanese photographers.
Tatsuo Suzuki was born in Tokyo and has been taking photographs all over the city and surrounding areas with a large focus on Shibuya, Shinjuku, Yokohama, and Gotanda since 2008. Even though he has spent so much time in Tokyo, he had this to say about his experience there "Although I currently live there. I feel as if I am floating on the streets."
His background is in law, but he picked up photography as a hobby once digital cameras became more practical to use. “DSLRs were becoming more popular and I realised it would be a good hobby because I can take photos anytime.”He began his street photography career serendipitously, "I took a candid shot of a seller and just in that particular moment I realized that this is the kind of picture I want to take in my life. I like people very much."
His style is in your face, always black-and-white, and driven by emotion which brings with it a harmony between chaos and serenity. On the topic he has stated, "My street photography style expresses my feeling. It should not be anything else and should speak to people more than words." and "Only Black & White. Monochromatic images are distinguished by their essentiality and the ability to make you feel deep emotions. I think that black and white photographs makes imagination fly."
Friction / Tokyo Street
Released in 2020, Friction/Tokyo Street is his most highly regarded work to date. “Through my own eyes … I would like to express the tension, the edged frustration, the taut atmosphere and the feelings that beat, inherent in the city.” Tatsuo Suzuki does this by capturing the mundane aspects of everyday life with his own strong voice and displaying that voice in the 150 images that make up this highly sought after book which due to its limited run now sells in the ballpark of ten times its original price. The work is influenced by the images of Robert Frank's The Americans in a way that showcases Tokyo in a similar kind of haphazard and visually flowing fashion, but also bare influence of Koudelka and William Klein who Tatsuo has stated are photographers who have made a big impact on him. This book won the Steidl Book Award Japan which was established in 2016. For this competition photographers submit demo books of their work then Steidl prints and releases the work of the winning photographer.
Tatsuo had this to say about creating this body of work "I always embrace spontaneity. I have really good “photographic luck.” When my intuition kicks in and I decide to walk in a certain direction, I end up encountering a special scene." This type of spontaneity and luck is captured through how he feels when walking through Tokyo, "the sense of hustle, noise, tension, loneliness, and so on. I also consider whether beauty is inherent within the photo itself."
The images of this book largely consist of close-ups of people. In regard to capturing people over places, Suzuki has stated that he is drawn to emotions over everything else, "before becoming a photographer, I worked for 25 years as a salesman. The unsupportive work environments and the sight of people exhausted by their daily lives in Tokyo’s streets mirrored my own repressed emotions. [...] Some people may not feel any friction in the city of Tokyo, and many may not feel a sense of tension either. For me, it’s about how my environment, emotions, and upbringing intersect with the bustling atmosphere of Tokyo. When these elements cross paths, I feel tension."
Tokyo Street Zines Vol. 1 - 6
One of my larger goals for this channel if it can continue to grow is to start a printed zine in collaboration with photographers either in Bangkok or around the world. These zines are one of the main influences on that idea. Tatsuo Suzuki has released 6 zines titled Tokyo Street with issue six being dubbed the final issue. Each issue includes a set of small prints and a poster with an image on one side and reflection from Suzuki on the other.
Issue one talks about how music, as well as, Shibuya are the primary influences for these zines. Since Shibuya is the main focal point and the plethora of record stores and music venues in that part of Tokyo makes it easy to see the connection between street, music, and the location. Further, his connection to the area is through a rock subgenre called "beatrock" that started in Japan which he feels highlights the alienation he feels in the city through "the bustle, irritation, and nervousness of passengers and pedestrians" which have "all been the basis of my photography." The ambitions laid out in the first zine were to attempt the publication of one zine per month and to pursue more street portraits which can be seen throughout all of his work.
In the second issue, there is a writing from photographer Takeki Sugiyama that reflects on dreams he had of being involved in the film industry and how Tokyo is a place where "fulfilling your dreams is no easy task." He feels that Suzuki work stands out from much of the street photography he has experienced and isn't much of a fan of and that through his work Suzuki is accomplishing his dream by creating images that resonate with people, because it is set in Tokyo, you can feel the present moment of his work, and there is a connection to the people found within it.
In issues three, Suzuki communicates further the connection he sees between photography and music. Stating that "punk rock, new wave, beat rock, free jazz, blues, garage rock, dub, or even pop" have all influenced him and the emotions they are able to convey are similarly conveyed through his photos. The major difference is that photography can manipulate time in a way that music can't, because of how images can be shifted around to display different sequences of events. The connection between these two artforms is felt further through Suzuki's argument that the personality of the photographer and their photos cannot be separated and music makes up so much of so many of our identities. "I often hear that photos have nothing to do with the personality of the photographer and certainly, the quality of the works are judged from a single photo - which is mere information - so, such ideas are not a mistake. But photography and the essential core of the photographer can no longer be separated when you start to think: Who took this? What other kind of photos does he or she take? What is the back story? What are their thoughts when shooting the scene?"
I will touch on the reflections from issue 4 and 5 later in this video since the writings within each deal more directly with the Fujifilm controversy. I only recently ordered issue 6, so I can't speak as to why it is the final issue at this point without the attached reflection. According to Japan Film Hunter's website the zine was intended to be a year long project that got extended, because of the pandemic and was never meant to last this long in the first place. The subtitle of the zine is "ending is beginning," so maybe Tatsuo has something new in the works for his fans.
VoidTokyo
VoidTokyo was founded in 2017 and has released 8 zines so far. “Every time I look at the work of VoidTokyo I can feel Tokyo and ask: What kind of world do we live in now? The members of VoidTokyo are working every day with the aim of helping to answer that.” I was lucky enough to go to VoidTokyo's gallery showing held in Ginza in the summer of 2023 titled "Sharaku" which from what I can find is the name of a Japanese print maker from the 18th century. I cannot tell if this was the exact intention of the word, because an interview with Suzuki claims that it has to do with the sharing of images from multiple perspectives. Either way, it works since one of the main ambitions of VoidTokyo was to take photographer's who had work that largely existed online and create printed versions of that work through the zines VoidTokyo publishes which include the work of multiple photographers spread across each issue.
When talking about who joined the collective Suzuki he had this to say, “I approached photographers who were interested in my work but mainly active on the internet without having the opportunity to exhibit or publish their photobooks,” [...] “The idea behind VoidTokyo is to take pictures of Tokyo together and leave them on paper.” “Because no matter how good the photo is on the internet, it just goes on the (Instagram) timeline and nothing (physical) remains.” While the zines are awesome and something I think more photographers (myself included) should pursue in terms of printing our own work; it is absolutely incredible seeing these images printed in the large size that was chosen for this event.
VoidTokyo consists of 11 members whose instagram pages I have linked in the description, most of whom, but not all, photograph primarily in black-and-white. Each photographer uses their own distinct and unique style to showcase their perspective of Tokyo's architecture, beautiful women, textures, and abstract photography on an image to image level, but at a larger scale the main subject of all of the group's work in its entirety is Tokyo itself. “We continue to take pictures of Tokyo from our own perspectives,” [...] “It’s a city undergoing remarkable changes. With each issue and exhibition Tokyo is compiled from those various perspectives and accumulated."
Fuji Film Controversy
This topic has been covered extensively, but you can't really tell Suzuki's story without including it. Tatsuo Suzuki was effectively "canceled" in the eyes of a lot of people who saw an ad campaign that was promoting him and his photography as a fujifilm user alongside the release of the X100V. People who saw this video were shocked over how he conducted himself while shooting as they felt it was far to abbrasive. This topic has largely been covered to death with people voicing opinions for and against Tatsuo. In covering it here, I thought I would offer what Tatsuo himself has had to say on the matter. As a result of the backlash, Fujifilm pulled the advertisement they had made of Suzuki promoting the X100V that was intended to be part of the ad campaign for the camera's release. As far as I can tell Fujifilm also dropped him as a brand ambassador.
From earlier interviews with Suzuki prior to this controversy he had this to say about how he photographs people on the streets, "If beauty is present, I believe the photo will have universality for many people, allowing it to stand on its own. Lastly, I pay the utmost attention to ensure that the subject is not demeaned. In principle, I photograph with an open posture, so that it’s clear I am taking photos. If someone feels uncomfortable or avoids the camera, I exclude those images from the selection, even if I’ve already shot them. Furthermore, if a subject doesn’t notice me but I feel the photo might work against them, I remove it from the selection unless there are exceptional circumstances. However, this is ultimately my subjective decision, and I don’t believe it’s necessarily the right one. What I can do is always photograph with respect toward the subject."
More recently he's talked about changes to his techniques that happened as a result of keeping his distance during the pandemic and loosing interest in the style people find to be abbrasive "Another significant change occurred when my first photobook, “Friction / Tokyo Street,” was published by STEIDL in 2020. It is a culmination of my street photography from 2009 to 2018, but I began to feel that I had exhausted that style. Repeating the same approach was no longer exciting to me. I wanted to expand the range of my expression. One of the big reasons is that I believe unnecessary self-replication should be avoided, and I want to continue deepening my pursuit of expression as a photographer."
There is a myriad of opinions on the controversy, some filled with hate, and some less so. I couldn't track down any statements from established photographers bashing Tatsuo on the matter, but these are a few posts of people commenting on this issue. [find the tweets and record what they say] I choose to take the perspective of those who know him personally and those who I have only seen as a positive influences through most if not all of the material they've posted on instagram and YouTube through two other photographers who I have followed for years. In an interview with Inverse.com Lintaro who runs the SamuelStreetLife YouTube channel had this to say on the matter "I can understand that it may look very aggressive and rude seeing him approaching his subjects, but he is still very considerate and apologizes when the discomfort of his subjects is greater than intended,” he says. “In the end, he is very aware of people's perception of him, and he does understand the consequences.” Lintaro obviously knows Suzuki personally and also has a video interviewing him on his channel which will also be linked in the description. In the same article, another street photographer Ulysses Aoki says that the video that sparked the controversy "only covers a portion of how he shoots. You can watch other footage of him on the street with a smile on his face, interacting with the people he's shooting." but he also admits that this situations has made him "and many other candid photographers rethink the value of candid photography, and our relationship with wider society, including companies."
In issue 5 of Suzuki's zine photography critic Kenji Takazawa reflects on what makes for ethical street photography and the fears that individuals have of appearing without their consent in the work of street photographers. His argument is that a single photo can be taken out of context and could be cause for concern, but when a photographer has a large body of work that any single individual is part of there is enough information to really tell if they are being artistically portrayed or if they are being shown in a negative light. Which is one of the problems with this whole Fujifilm controversy. Many people interacting with it are not involved in street photography and do not understand the creation of these types of photos or how they will be used. If they were aware of the photographer's work they might not be so quick to feel negatively about it. Kenji stated "a street snapshot appears unconvincing if taken and published anonymously. It only becomes a work of art when the photographer is fully liable for his or her expression" and later "Suzuki has also been presenting his works as an artist. Following the tradition of city snapshots, he has been photographing Tokyo for a long time. It is also worth mentioning that he blurs the lines between reality and fiction by mixing street snapshots with photgoraphs of models. With this purposeful blurring between staging and non-staging, he casts doubt on the myth that street snaps are merely an expression of the unconscious and simultaneously makes them prescriptive to the hypersensitivity to use of personal images and the symptoms of snap-phobia."
In Tokyo Street Vol. 4, Suzuki makes his own case for what happened in the Fujifilm video. "In a nutshell, as the only Japanese photographer from the selected candidates, the request from Fuji-film to create this video stimulated me to such an extent that my excitement made me more aggressive when shooting the photos that I typically would be. Unfortunately, due to the controversial response on social media, the video was deleted within half a day of its release. Upon seeing the video myself, its intensity made me think this outcome was inevitable."
"What have I been doing since this incident? I have continued to shoot in the city. I haven't received any complaints on the streets. I haven't developed any negatives of subjects who acted uncomfortable when I photographed them, and I wouldn't select any questionably unethical photos. However, some photos do leave me feeling ambivalent and torn. In those situations, I contemplate how successful the photo is, or the beauty within it. The final decision is only made when I've chose whether or not I can take full responsibility for the photo in question"
He then talks about how he stopped taking photos for a while since the whole situation put him off of it. And, closes the statement with "however, the only thing I have left to do is to take photographs. Continuing to shoot is my life. This belief keeps me alive every day. I continue to search for ways to express my subjects in a respectable way using street photography."
Whether you have more empathy for Suzuki or the people he has chosen to make the subjects of his work is up to you and clearly up for debate. However, I think it's clear from his own statements and testaments of those around him that he's not a melicious person and his photos aren't taken with harmful intentions. Those of us who are brash in the way we take photos can take away a lesson of caring for our subjects and much as we care about the photos that they provide us with and share images that highlight people in a truly artistic light.