KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to present Chikashi Suzuki’s solo exhibition “Fragment of Everyday Life in Tokyo” from Saturday, March 7, 2020.

Active at the forefront of editorial and fashion photography since the 1990s, Chikashi Suzuki began his career in France and has since remained one of the leading photographers who have transcended the boundary between fashion and art.

Despite his infrequent participation in exhibitions and photobooks, Suzuki has presented two shows at KOSAKU KANECHIKA. “A Fine Day in Tokyo” in 2018, and “My Tokyo” in 2019, both exhibitions explored the photographer’s reinterpretation of his treasured muse, the city of Tokyo. Documented throughout the course of several decades, Suzuki presents the city through a reconsideration of photography as a medium and through its history.

It is from these two exhibitions that have given Suzuki an opportunity to reflect on his long-standing oeuvre. Straying from a format of meticulous structure and arrangement, this show features a collection of private snapshots compiled throughout the photographer’s career. Captured and collected over the years, this exhibition will be the first public presentation of Suzuki’s selected works.

Of landscapes and objects seen regularly by the human eye, photography of the mundane has seen an expansion in a widespread effort to replicate and document reality. Yet, since the proliferation of digital media, photography has become enslaved to the unit of speed. In contrast to the dispensability of modern images, the photos captured on film by Suzuki encapsulate a seemingly imperceptible notion, the passage of time that is normally invisible to the human eye. A public figure, the person prior to becoming that individual, the city of Tokyo, landscapes, and flowers all exist as fragments of Suzuki’s memory. It is within this record of authenticity left by the photographer that viewers are able to include their personal anecdotes and experiences.

Articulated in her book “On Photography,” Susan Sontag states that “All photos are reminiscent of death.” In accordance with this belief, one’s preservation within a photograph provides both an ephemeral and immortalized access into the fate and existence of an object or individual. Such an explanation can also be used to interpret how a sense of sorrow and nostalgia is often synonymous with an undeniable counterpart of beauty. It is also why such lapses in time appeal innately to the imagination of viewers.

Particularly within moments of ambiguity, Suzuki has stated that he actively aims to capture the unconscious dispositions of his subjects. The photographer further expands that the reason as to why his photographs hold a particular appeal is that the more suppressed his individual ingenuity remains, the more pronounced each subject’s charm and character will appear. It is in these fleeting moments that elements that can only be captured by the photographer are immortalized forever.

This exhibition will consist of approximately 40 photographs hand-selected by Suzuki himself. We cordially invite you to take this rare opportunity to view the intimate and contemplative works of Chikashi Suzuki.

Chikashi Suzuki

Chikashi Suzuki was born in 1972. At the start of his career in 1998, he relocated to France and worked as a photographer for the magazine, Purple. Acclaimed for his work in both domestic and foreign magazines, Suzuki has been involved in the campaigns of ISSEY MIYAKE, TOGA, CEBIT and GUCCI. He has presented works internationally at venues including COLETTE (Paris, 1998), MOCA (Los Angeles, 2001), and the HENRY ART GALLERY (Washington, 2001). Suzuki’s notable solo exhibitions have been held at TREESARESOSPECIAL (Tokyo, 2005), the G/P gallery (Tokyo, 2009), and KOSAKU KANECHIKA (Tokyo, 2018, 2019). His major publications include “shapes of blooming” (TREESARESOSPECIAL, 2005), “Driving with Rinko Kikuchi” (THE INTERNATIONAL, 2008), “CITE” (G/P gallery, TREESARESOSPECIAL, 2009), and “SAKURA! (LITTLE MORE, 2014).