“one of Japan’s most prominent photographers, Suzuki presents quintessential Japanese subjects in a manner that is at once timeless and refreshingly new”

Together with “White” and “Between the Sea and the Mountain”, Sakura forms one of the main representative series of Risaku Suzuki’s 20 year long body of work. In Sakura, Suzuki focuses on the cherry blossom, the one flower most familiar with his Japanese audience and simultaneously one of the most trite and ordinary photographic motifs available. The photobook, published by Edition Nord, is a light, bright, beautiful examination of the cherry flower, from both a more direct, earnest approach and - with some of the photos completely taken over by blurred out close-ups - in a self-aware, meta-commentary kind of manner. Most of the works in the book have been photographed in 2016, with additional photographs shot at later dates.

Born in 1963 in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Risaku Suzuki currently lives and works in Tokyo. The artist is known for his dedicated productions that capture scenes in Kumano, Wakayama Prefecture; one of Japan’s most holy places and also Suzuki’s hometown. Suzuki has held exhibitions worldwide and has received many prizes including the Kimura Ihei Award, the most renowned award in the field of photography in Japan.