Tatsuo Suzuki, Friction / Tokyo Street

by Xavier Encinas

“Friction / Tokyo Street” is the first photobook by Tatsuo Suzuki, who has amassed a small cult following online with his black-and-white street photography from Tokyo.


Suzuki’s photography forms a modern update to classic street photography, with dense, contrast-rich black-and-white photos throughout Tokyo capturing daily life in sliced instants, each revealing unexpected, momentary meaning and beauty – a girl navigating a zebra crossing, cropped legs standing on a subway platform, shifting reflections in a store window, or a pigeon caught mid-flight.

Exclusive interview with Tatsuo Suzuki

“Through my own eyes and my street shots I would like to express: the tension, the edged frustration, the taut atmosphere and the feelings that beat, inherent in the city.”

DISCOVER MORE STORIES

  1. Larry Sultan, Swimmers

    ‘I wanted to do something so absolutely different, and physical, and in a certain way, kind of ill-conceived… I took my camera and went underwater in a bunch of pools. And made pictures.’
  2. Mark Steinmetz, The Players

    Made between 1986 and 1990, these photographs are classic Steinmetz: tenderness, humor, and humanism are all present here.
  3. Walter Iooss Jr., Icons

    Widely considered the world's most influential sports photographer, Walter Iooss Jr.'s images transcend the fame of his subjects and have come to represent modern sports culture.