MASAYOSHI SUKITA
Words: Liz Rice McCray
For most of us David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” will never sound the same and our world will never be the same. We lost David Bowie, an unworldly human, a favorite to most, a legend to all… one of the most influential artists of all time.
The news of David Bowie’s passing spread like a wildfire. The outpouring of love and sorrow spread, contiguously, from one person to another as the news was heard. It’s a moment that many will remember. It reached me via Instagram; it was a morning that I was slow to get out bed. At 7 a.m. I clicked to my feed and there it was… @shopredone had posted, “RIP to a true artist #davidbowie.” My eyes filled with tears. I kept scrolling. It couldn’t be, but it was. Over and over: RIP BOWIE, hashtags of #ripbowie, a photo by #MasayoshiSukita #rip. Beautiful photographs filled my Instagram, as they probably did yours. And many of those photographs were those of Masayoshi Sukita.
As the story goes, in 1972 [in London] Masayoshi Sukita attended a David Bowie concert. Sukita had noticed a promotional poster for the Bowie show and felt compelled to attend it, with his portfolio in hand. It is said that Sukita met Bowie before ever hearing his music. This was the start of over four decades of collaboration between Masayoshi Sukita and David Bowie. In 1977 Sukita took the iconic cover shot for Bowie’s Heroes album. This is perhaps one of the most famous photos of Bowie ever. Masayoshi Sukita has spent 40+ years photographing David Bowie. It was a friendship and collaboration between musician, actor and producer, David Bowie and photographer Masayoshi Sukita.
Surprisingly, until November 2015, Sukita had never exhibited his work in the United States. The Morrison Hotel Gallery (www.morrisonhotelgallery.com) was proud to host the first-ever American exhibition of his treasured photographs of Bowie’s remarkable career from 1972 to the present day. Of his work, David Bowie said of Sukita, “This is a committed artist, a brilliant artist. I would call him a master,” right before the opening of The David Bowie: Photography by Masayoshi Sukita at Morrison Hotel gallery.
“Sukita’s vision codifying photographs were integral to the exhibit, and have come to be essential in understanding Bowie’s artistic narrative,” said Peter Blachley, co-owner of Morrison Hotel Gallery. “Sukita’s work has been a constant as Bowie shape-shifted from the glam space alien of his Ziggy Stardust phase, to the stark monochromatic perspective of his Berlin phase, to the earthy sophistication of his more recent guises. MHG has long admired Sukita’s work and is honored to be able to share his expansive catalog from Bowie’s creative and fertile mid 1970s period, for the photographer’s stateside premiere.”
Masayoshi Sukita was born in 1938 in a small town known for its coal mining in the northern region of Kyushu, Japan. Sukita’s father was killed in World War II, and although Sukita was very young when he lost his father he has clear memories of taking photos with his dad. This was the start to his lifelong passion for photography. Sukita graduated from the Japan Institute of Photography and Film, and received APA awards in 1963 and 1968. Then Sukita went on to assist/study under established photographer Shisui Tanahashir, and he entered into an advertising agency in Osaka. In 1965 he moved to Tokyo to pursue fashion photography/TV commercials, at this time becoming a freelance photographer. From 1970-1971 Sukita traveled to New York frequently and was attracted to its subculture, the mix of film, art, music and fashion. Sukita photographed T-Rex’s Marc Bolan in London. In New York, Sukita took photos of Jimi Hendrix shortly before his death. Today, Masayoshi Sukita continues to work in advertising in the film/television industry and continues his passion in photographing musicians.
Many thanks to all the people that helped put together this memoriam photo-journal of Masayoshi Sukita photographs. Special thanks to Jen DiSisto of Art Duet, The Press House and Morrison Hotel Gallery. All photos © Masayoshi Sukita/courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery. For more information on Morrison Hotel Gallery and to see and/or purchase Masayoshi Sukita’s photographs of David Bowie, please visit www.morrisonhotelgallery.com. You can also visit their West Hollywood location inside the Sunset Marquis Hotel.