Mr. Freedom

Shomei Tomatsu
Mr. Freedom

Photographs: Shomei Tomatsu

Publisher: Akio Nagasawa

32 pages

Year: 2020

Comments: Hardcover with picture taped on , 26 by 21cm, Text in Japanese and English.

This is a collection of self-portraits from the series Mr. Freedom, where Tomatsu freely plays different characters as he pleases. The book also includes portraits of Daido Moriyama, Masahisa Fukase, and Nobuyoshi Araki shot by Tomatsu himself.

One day,Tomatsu-san asked me totally out of blue to let him take a photo of me.Without thinking much about it, I told him to go ahead, only to hear that he wanted me to dress up as a women for the shot. What?!Me in drag?? Although I did hesitate a moment at that thought, I eventually agreed because it seemed like fun to dress like the guys in the gay bars in Shinjyuku 2-chome that I was frequently visiting at the time. However, When he took me to a small photo studio a few days later, it turned out that the costume he had arranged for me was a wedding dress. No way! I was going to refuse, but it was too late. There I was, dressed up and with my face powdered, and all Tomatsu, you bastard!!
– Afterword by Daido Moriyama