Issei Suda

The ominous sight of a snake slithering up a doorframe, the sly glance of an intoxicated man at a festival, a street scene with an interplay of light and shadow hinting at the fantastic--these are all particular moments captured by lssei Suda, whose work invariably contains an element of something unsettling and otherworldly. His chosen format of 6 by 6 inches, somehow unnatural to the viewer, heightens the sense of unease. Aspects of Suda's photographs invite comparison with Diane Arbus, whose pictures probe the darker side of human life. However, something distinctively Japanese, grounded in a particularly Japanese emotional landscape and aesthetic, runs through Suda's work.