ARTISTS
Kiyoshi SUZUKI
In 1943, born in Yoshima Village (currently Iwaki City), Fukushima Prefecture, the former site of the Joban coal mine. He passed away in 2000. After graduating from a part-time high school, he moved to Tokyo to become a cartoonist, but was so moved by Ken Domon’s “Children in Chikuho” (1960) that he decided to become a photographer. He attended the Tokyo College of Photography and graduated in 1969. In 1970, he debuted with the series “Coal Mining Town” which included images of the coal mine in his hometown and was published in Camera Mainichi. In 1972, he self-published his first book of photographs “Soul and Soul” and continued to make photographs while making a living as a sign painter thereafter. He published “The Light that has Lighted the World” in 1976, Mind Games (recipient of the 33rd Photographic Society of Japan’s Newcomer’s Award) in 1982, “Finish Dying” (recipient of the 1995 Ken Domon Award) in 1994, and “Durasia” in 1998. Nearly all of the publications were self-published and designed.
