Japan Modernism

by Edward Denison (Author),‎ Guangyu Ren (Author)

You can always hear music in Steve Hiett’s photography. You can definitely hear the music on the cover of his solo debut, Down On The Road By The Beach. Heavily saturated with color, mesmerizingly flash-lit, and warmly off-center, this image was like an Edgar Degas painting come to life - albeit one fashioned with Miami’s South Beach in mind. That image, an Elle Française snapshot taken from his Japanese-released photo book also titled “Down On The Road By The Beach”, was intensely-colored Modernism as Pop Art. On Down On The Road By The Beach were those blues, heavily saturated (a trademark of Steve), within and outside the album. We may not know it, but modern, as in at this moment, fashion, and editorial photography owes a lot to the techniques Steve Hiett pioneered in the late 70s and 80s. Yet on this album cover, you’re getting just a peek at his talent.