Abbey Road Announces Lifetime Achievement Award for Legendary Photographer Masayoshi Sukita

Abbey Road is set to honor Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Abbey Road Music Photography Awards.

Renowned for his 44‑year collaboration with David Bowie, Sukita captured the iconic cover for Bowie’s 1977 *Heroes* album. His portfolio also includes celebrated images of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Joe Strummer, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and David Sylvian. In 2025, David Bailey was presented with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.

Born in Kyushu, Japan, in 1938, Sukita relocated to Tokyo in 1965, where he initially worked on fashion photography and television commercials before establishing himself as a freelance photographer in 1970. Between 1970 and 1971 he traveled to New York, photographing Jimi Hendrix shortly before the artist’s death and capturing Marc Bolan of T‑Rex. In 1972, he met David Bowie in London, initiating a lengthy collaborative partnership that spanned the globe.

Sukita expressed his gratitude, stating, “It is a great honor to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards. I am delighted to be part of photography’s history and will continue to create work that I hope will be cherished by audiences for years to come.”

Mark Robertson, Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing & Creative, hailed Sukita as “a true visionary whose iconic photographs have not only chronicled some of the most influential musicians of our era but also reshaped how we perceive them, creating timeless, intimate images that have become part of cultural history and continue to inspire music, fashion, and visual culture.”

Launched in 2022, the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards have become the cornerstone of the Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator, a program that includes events, exhibitions, workshops, and educational resources such as the recent Abbey Road Music Photography Festival held in New York City in May 2026. This year, the awards attracted more than 24,500 submissions from 40 countries, representing a 25 % rise compared with the previous year.

This year’s judging panel is chaired by British photographer, publisher, and filmmaker Rankin, and features Nile Rodgers, Raye, Damiano David, Platon, Dean Chalkley, Dennis Morris, Kid Harpoon, Lily Fontaine, Jackie Lee Young, Hikaru Utada, and Simon Wheatley. The shortlisting panel is overseen by *Rolling Stone* senior editor Sacha Lecca, together with Andreia Lemos, Rich Fury, Khali Ackford, Ebru Yildiz, and Ped Millichamp.

The ceremony will be held on September 24 in London.

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