Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, 42, is a photographer and mondo filmmaker who specializes in shots of corpses. Since 1994, he has taken photos of over 1,000 dead bodies, often chasing police cars to scenes of crimes, accidents and suicides in such countries as Thailand, Russia and Colombia, as well as parts of Palestine. Such gruesome and gory sights are not for the faint-hearted but Tsurisaki always gutted it out and kept the cameras rolling. He captured the grisly details of death, from brains splattered onto sidewalks to the shock registered on a grandmother's bullet-riddled face. He has published six books of photographs and a collection of short "shockumentaries" under the title "Junk Films." Tsurisaki's 92-minute feature, "Orozco The Embalmer," is about a Colombian who prepared 50,000 bodies for public viewing at funerals. Although documenting death has a long and respected history in many cultures, recent global censorship has been squeezing the life out of this genre of art. Tsurisaki, whose life's work immortalizes the dead, is one of a dying breed of photographers. He is not, however, about to let censors kill his enthusiasm for art and he defiantly continues to take images that breathe life into moments of death.
A naked body is always beautiful, whether it's dead or alive, skinny or fat, young or old. All forms of human life and death are exquisite and extremely beautiful to me. I've never seen a corpse I didn't like.
Death is always just around the corner. Or straight ahead. I was walking down a street in Bogota, Colombia, when, out of the blue, a guy coming toward me pulled out a submachine gun and began firing at the man walking beside me. I was lucky I didn't get shot. When you're in crossfire, keep walking. Fast.