Death: Photography 1994-2011

by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki (Photographer)

Overview

DEATH-is the first major retrospective of the work of Japanese photographer Tsurisaki Kiyotaka, whose images of death and conflict from global "hot-spots" have earned him a reputation as a leading underground photographer. This deluxe, full-sized book contains over 100 full-colour images shot between 1994 and 2011, culminating with poignant scenes of death and destruction from the recent Fukushima disaster in Japan. Also included is a new introduction by Tsurisaki, in which he provides an overview of the philosophy behind his unusual career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781840681932
Publisher:	Creation
Publication date:	11/30/2012
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Self-styled "corpse photographer", film director and writer Tsurisaki Kiyotaka was born 1966 in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from the Faculty of Letters, Keio University and became a photographer after a brief career as a porno director in 1994.
His first solo exhibition was held at NG Gallery (Ikejiri, Tokyo) in 1995.

He has shot over 1,000 scenes of death in some of the world's most unregulated and lawless areas and conflict zones, including Thailand, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, and Palestine. He is also known for his autopsy documentary OROZCO THE EMBALMER.

Read an Excerpt

I am neither an undertaker of religion or philosophy advocating an absolute truth of death, nor someone in the mould of an immoral merchant or vulgar killer.
For example, I may resemble Muslim or Mexican terrorists proudly hanging out the heads of their enemies on the net. The expressionists.
I'm a sort of fundamentalist as regards freedom of expression. I believe nothing is impossible for art. I believe I can do anything for art. However anti-social or obscene it is, even if it hurts someone, expression mustn't be restricted by any means. This is my faith and prayer. I'm ready to sell my soul to the devil for art. I'm nothing but an artist.
How come I shoot the dead? That's a silly question.
What object do you think anyone of all ages and countries generally hates to see most of all? Corpses. What else do you insist photographers should choose other than such an extremely powerful object? The form consisting of the flesh, blood, bones and the guts at the scene is a para-language worth struggling with for artists.
It's true that a corpse like that can obtain an extravagantly strong power of destruction by its excessive existence and peculiar ability. It might be described as the "nuclear weapon for the postmodern brigade". The taste of Muslim guerrillas oscillated or quaked severely through the underground axis to the opposite side of the earth and inspired Mexican heavily armed drug cartels.
At the same time, it's true that the dead have been utilized by those in authority and power. Radical visual images of the dead have functioned well as tools of information control in Russia and China, they are shocking enough to cover up inconvenient true information for the regimes, and even made to support their obscurantist policies. Of course such shamelessness is also the specialty of CIA, MI6 and the other Western secret services.
Artists I think can be free from this aggravated, magnificent and putrid intelligence war. We may be used by rulers or pressed by people against our wishes, but the net world as the front is basically open to the general public; therefore the need for professional artists relatively became lower, which is why each individual artist's position and opinion could increasingly have the casting vote.
Powers are strategically cunning enough to overpower us, but at core their materials are vulgar shock media, and they would rather pursue vulgarism......