David Bowie may never make it to Masterton, but a new book and exhibition will get local fans closer than ever before.
Speed of Life is a limited edition book tracking 40 years of David Bowie's life through the photos of Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita.
Just 2000 copies of the book will be made, and 50 are being offered up to the New Zealand public - for a cool $1000 a pop.
"I'm expecting them to go fast, it's quite a collectible ... It's beautiful, it's like a work of art," said David Hedley who, thanks to a long-standing connection with publishers Genesis Publications, is bringing the book to New Zealand and Australia.
Mr Hedley will also be bringing the photographer, Masayoshi Sukita, to Melbourne and Masterton for the launch of the book and its accompanying exhibition on September 4.
The prints are for sale in editions of 20, with prices ranging from AUD$ 2950 to $3950. There is also a competition being run on a FM radio station (GOLD-FM 104.3) with the prize being a copy of the book.
Today I met with Mr Sukita and, with the help of a translator, I asked what other types of photos he shot. At first I think he thought I meant in the music world, and when it was clarified I meant generally he showed me a set of images that he had taken in Japan - about the fact that there is a (drinking?) water shortage, despite the mass of water that surrounds the country and the recent tsunami. I thought they were quite striking, some of them very beautiful. He seemed to be a very humble and polite man.
Below is a flyer for retrospective exhibition in Japan, and other related activities, running from August 11 to 30 September.
Also below is the flyer for the Mossgreen exhibition in Melbourne.
Finally, there is beautiful image taken by gallery staff, of Mr Sukita in front of one of the prints.
In a few days time i will post some photos of the exhibition - which I will take on Wednesday this week, as well as a few of the opening night.
Posts: 2910Location: takasaki, japanJoined: 28th May, 2008
i'll be heading to tokyo tomorrow (09/09) to see the exhibition, although it's pretty confusing to see there are three shows running concurrently in the city. i'll skip Paul Smith as that's far too trendy for me, but will check the other two locations (Parco and the Metropolitan Museum of Photography) and hope i'm not paying to see the same stuff twice.
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asianbowie
Posted: 8th Sep 2012, 4:14 pm
Posts: 316Location: JAPANJoined: 7th Mar, 2008
shooky wrote:
i'll i'll skip Paul Smith as that's far too trendy for me, but will check the other two locations (Parco and the Metropolitan Museum of Photography) .
shooky, your choice is very good. I took one day trip to Tokyo today. I visited all 3 exhibitions.
Paul Smith exhibition shows only 12 photos, all taken from SOL. All the photos are made by high resolution printer, not real photographs. But fold out flyer provided here is pretty attractive. You can order some photo prints, priced at 31,500-73,500JPY.
Parco museum exhibition features only one photo of Bowie. But all the photos are real photographs, not made by high resolution printer. They look very nice. You can get 100 JPY discount by showing Metropolitan Museum exhibition ticket at the entrance.
At Metropolitan Museum exhibition, some of photos are large size. But here, many of them are made by high resolution printer. Fortunately I have a chance to see this exhibition with guidance by Mr.SUKITA himself and Yacco Takahashi (well known stylist who worked with BOWIE and SKUKITA). I can hear many episodes behind the photo sessions. It's a very exciting moment to me.
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shooky
Posted: 8th Sep 2012, 11:45 pm
Posts: 2910Location: takasaki, japanJoined: 28th May, 2008
thanks bin, but now i'm wondering if it's worth the trip... ONE bowie picture at Parco? how many at the Metropolitan? did you pick up the book?
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asianbowie
Posted: 9th Sep 2012, 2:15 am
Posts: 316Location: JAPANJoined: 7th Mar, 2008
Over 200 photos at Metropolitan,20 photos of BOWIE. Maybe nothing new to those who own SOL genesis book. The exhibition book features both Metropolitan and Parco exhibition photos.
Both exhibition covers Mr.SUKITA's whole career, not focus only on BOWIE photos.
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shooky
Posted: 9th Sep 2012, 8:38 am
Posts: 2910Location: takasaki, japanJoined: 28th May, 2008
thanks for the info. i was aware it was a sukita retrospective but all three exhibitions use a bowie image for their promotion and web front pages and he's on the book cover, so i don't think i'd be alone in assuming there would be more than a handful of bowie pics to be seen.
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asianbowie
Posted: 9th Sep 2012, 12:03 pm
Posts: 316Location: JAPANJoined: 7th Mar, 2008
Flyers and postcards.
Attachments:
Flyer_KIREI.jpg [ 316.95 KiB | Viewed 3488 times ]
Parco_Postcards.jpg [ 318.71 KiB | Viewed 3488 times ]
PaulSmith_front.jpg [ 368.29 KiB | Viewed 3488 times ]
PaulSmith_back.jpg [ 404.36 KiB | Viewed 3488 times ]
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shooky
Posted: 10th Sep 2012, 1:09 pm
Posts: 2910Location: takasaki, japanJoined: 28th May, 2008
picked up the exhibition book today at Parco (signed by Sukita). very nice indeed. there was also a poster/print of the "heroes" cover image for a very reasonable 2625 yen, on heavy matt paper with a Risky Folio copyright at the bottom. i passed on the tote bags and t-shirts which looked a bit cheap IMO.
