Sumiko Kiyooka passed away on October 17, 1991, at the age of 70. The same month she died, her legacy was already being packaged for collectors. A comprehensive "Art of Sumiko Kiyooka" collection was published, though critics noted that the selection process was strange, including models who had never even been ranked in the Petit Tomato popularity polls, suggesting some books were padded with filler material to generate more revenue.
What exactly was Petit Tomato ? It was a series of photographs, many published in magazines with titles like Bessatsu Petit Tomato ("Petit Tomato Special Issue") and Fresh Petit Tomato , that featured mainly adolescent female models in various states of undress. The keyword "Photo Sumiko Kiyooka Petit Tomato" typically surfaces the work of specific models. For instance, petit TOMATO VOL.6 from 1986 featured models named Kaoru and Nami. Like much of her work from this period, these images aimed to capture what Kiyooka saw as the innate charm, purity, and "embarrassing sex appeal" of her young subjects, a quality she described as "hazukashī no iroke". Photo Sumiko Kiyooka Petit Tomato
Unlike many male contemporary photographers of the era, Kiyooka’s marketing often relied on the premise of a "female gaze," presenting her photography as an artistic, intimate, and sensitive documentation of youth. The Evolution of Petit Tomato Magazine Sumiko Kiyooka passed away on October 17, 1991,