Artist Stamp&Numbered / Limited Editions of 600

Just like there exists no flower that has no name, there are no nameless humans existing in reality.
If we consider those figures that our history books tell us about as protagonists, most human beings are reduced to mere supporting actors. However, needless to point out, a slight change of perspective will present them as subjects of their unique personal histories. While seemingly buried in the casualness of daily life, all of them carry their own individual power and toughness, concealed deep within.
That’s exactly how revolutions used to happen, initiated by such anonymous, ordinary citizens. […] Their time may have been just a passing moment that is long gone, but as a photographer, I seem to feel the repercussions and the significance of their existence still today.

Issei Suda
※Excerpt of a statement made during his lifetime

 

Editorial note
“Anonymous Men and Women” is a series of one hundred photographs taken between 1976 and 1978 in Tokyo. 49 of them were published in the November 1978 issue of Camera Mainichi, and around the same time, all 100 prints were exhibited at Nikon Salon (Shinjuku/Ginza).
However, these works were not compiled in a photobook at the time of their initial publication, but remained separated up to this day, with several items from the series being included in such photobooks as Waga Tokyo 100 (Nikon Salon Books, 1979: 25 items), Ningen no kioku (Creo, 1996: 3 items), Tokyokei (Zen Photo, 2013: 3 items), and Childhood Days (Akio Nagasawa Publishing, 2015: 3 items), and one being featured at an exhibition in 1982 as part of the “Monogusa Syui” series.
As there is presently no chance to inspect the entire “Anonymous Men and Women” series as it was when it was first released, this book is an attempt to bring all of the one hundred photographs back together and restore the series as Issei Suda had originally envisioned.