Yuki Sakura

by Risaku Suzuki (Photographer)

In Yuki Sakura, Risaku Suzuki presents two quintessential Japanese subjects – snowfall and cherry blossoms – in a manner that is at once timeless and refreshingly new. Yuki Sakura opens with photographs of snowflakes drifting weightlessly in a deep blue Hokkaido night sky. These are followed by high-key landscapes of freshly-fallen snow bathed in morning light, punctuated by the merest suggestions of trees rising above the white drifts. The book ends in a crescendo of cherry blossoms against a backdrop of the branches from which they burst forth; the use of extreme selective focus in these last photographs softens the flowers into light pink cloud-forms, creating a full circle. Risaku Suzuki is one of Japan’s most prominent young photographers. His photographs were included in “The History of Japanese Photography” exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and are housed in the permanent collections of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; International Center of Photography, New York; and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Yuki Sakura is beautifully printed on matt Japanese paper in an oversized format. This gorgeous new monograph, the artist’s sixth, is limited to only 500 copies.

40 pages

First published January 1, 2007