Since embarking on his career as a photographer in 1958, Yoshihiro Tatsuki has remained active in the fields of advertising, fashion, portraiture, etc., while devoting his life to the creation of photographic artworks.
He first began to receive attention as a photographer in 1965 with a 56-page feature in ‘Camera Mainichi’ magazine entitled Shitadashi tenshi (Angels with Tongues Sticking Out).
In this work he created an urban fantasy featuring a single woman that demonstrated his mastery of photography and which was to have a powerful influence on photographers of the day. He followed this with Shiseikatsu (Private Life, 1971), which featured the actress Mariko Kaga as the heroine in a series of work evocative of the films of the Nouvelle Vague cinema; My America (1980), in which he traveled around the U.S.A., which has continued to have a powerful influence on Japan ever since the end of the Second World War, capturing the changing face of this great nation through his unique eye; Kazoku no Shōzō (Portrait of Family, 1990), that captures the ‘moment’ in which he perceives family ties and Kaze no shashinki (Photo Mind of the Wind, 2006) in which he uses the snapshot technique to capture drama in everyday life. In addition to these works has published numerous other photo-books, whose quantity and quality make him truly one of Japan’s leading photographers.
Yesterdays -A Rhapsody in Black and White is Yoshihiro Tatsuki’s latest work. Based around snapshots of things that have caught his eye during his everyday life, he combines these with the results of photo sessions with four women. In the monochrome photographs he has concentrated on since his debut, he converts the world we see into black and white, making us strongly conscious of the play of light and shade that is generally overlooked. This realm of black and white that Tatsuki creates captures the raw truth of the world through the discontinuity of reality, producing an unexpected, fantastical world. His nimble footwork, surprising camera work and avaricious desire to capture everything presents us with an image a photographer in pursuit of a single photograph.
Tatsuki is a photographer who endlessly searches for the miraculous ‘moment’ within the ever-changing world, making him one of the most genuine photographers in the world. We hope that you will enjoy the photographic works of Yoshihiro Tatsuki, a man who forever challenges the moment that exists before his eyes.
