Most amateurs photograph tomatoes under direct light, which creates hot spots (glare) on the waxy skin. Kiyooka used a 4x4-foot silk diffusion panel suspended 15cm above the fruit. This created a soft, cloud-like light that wraps around the curvature of the tomato. In her published notes, she revealed she used a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second on a tripod—slow enough to capture the ambient moisture but fast enough to maintain the fruit's structural integrity.
The name (sometimes appearing as Junko Kiyooka in westernized contexts) holds a significant place in the history of 20th-century Japanese photography. Best known for her work in the magazine and photobook series "Petit Tomato," Kiyooka’s career spanned decades of profound social change in Japan, evolving from hard-hitting photojournalism to a specialized, artistic vision of youth and innocence. From Photojournalism to the "Petit" Aesthetic Photo Sumiko Kiyooka Petit Tomato