Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama, known for his portraits of Beatles musician John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, among other celebrities, died this Thursday at the age of 83, the media said today.
Born in Tokyo in December 1940, Shinoyama studied at the Department of Photography at the Faculty of Art of the University of Japan, and soon after, he joined an advertising agency before taking the leap and starting to work on his own.
His mark was left on iconic couple photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which were later used for their albums Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey, in addition to those of the Japanese singer Saori Minami, whom he also married in 1979 and had a son.
He also published a book of nudes by actress Rie Miyazawa in 1991 and coined the concept of “hair nude”, which achieved quite a bit of fame at that time and highlights the importance of hair in photographs.
In his most criticized role, Shinoyama published numerous books of minors naked or in inappropriate clothing and situations and in 2009, his home and office were searched on suspicion of public indecency, after photographing naked women on the streets of Tokyo.
On May 26, 2010, a Tokyo court found Shinoyama guilty of public indecency and desecrating a place of worship for photographing in Aoyama Cemetery and fined him 300,000 yen (about 1,900 euros).
