kishin shinoyama who photographed john lennon & yoko ono’s last album cover dies at 83

Photographer Kishin shinoyama passes away of old age

Celebrated Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama has passed away at the age of 83. He was the one who shot the 1980 album cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy, where the couple was seen kissing. It was also one of the last photos of John Lennon, three months before he died. In 2015, Kishin Shinoyama introduced his portrait series of the day of shooting John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Taschen.

The series of images, published in 174 pages, peers through the intimate moments of the couple. It was Yoko Ono who requested the photographer to photograph and create the book Double Fantasy. Today, it serves as a memento of the revered Japanese photographer and a recollection of the couple’s photographs within a five-day shoot, portraits that Yoko Ono calls ‘images of my happiest time.’

Kishin Shinoyama photographed John Lennon and Yoko Ono for their 1980’s album Double Fantasy | images courtesy of Taschen (unless stated)

Remembering Kishin Shinoyama

Kishin Shinoyama started as an advertising photographer while he was still a student at Nihon University. By 1968, he was working as a freelance photographer, taking portraits of celebrities including Yukio Mishima, Momoe Yamaguchi, Rie Miyazawa, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. During this period, his photographs also documented Japan’s landscape, unveiling snapshots of fashion shows, dancers, theater troops, and even student protests.

Moreover, he became a known photographer for his artistic nude images of women, a recurring theme throughout his portfolio. The essence of expressionism and naturalism in photography surfaced in Kishin Shinoyama’s works. At times, his lens gazed at the vulnerability of his subjects, be they pop icons and celebrities or women in artistic environments. Kishin Shinoyama also attracted fame for his nude photographs of the actresses Rie Miyazawa and Kanako Higuchi and author Yukio Mishima, whose picture was taken before he took his own life.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono as photographed by Kishin Shinoyama