This summer, the Rencontres d’Arles are celebrating Japan through several exhibitions. Presented at the Palais de l’Archevêché until September 29, “Quelle joie de vous voir” puts a welcome spotlight on twenty contemporary Japanese women photographers, active from the 1950s to the present day. Focus on five of these artists who have contributed to the history of the medium: Okabe Momo, Nishimura Tamiko, Hara Mikiko, Ishiuchi Miyako and Nagashima Yurie.
Ishiuchi Miyako (born in 1947): the photographer who sublimates human fragility
Ishiuchi Miyako made his debut in the small town of Yokosuka, which houses an American naval base and inspired his first subject of work: military occupation. The material traces of passing time and memories then become his obsessions. In light of his 43 years, with the project 1.9.4.7 she questions the planned obsolescence of corps of women, on the transience of youth and the scars that bear witness to an experience: calloused hands, mutilated chests, aching feet…
Sa series Mother’s (2002-2005) offers – in the form of an inventory – a somewhat particular mourning. Here she worked to photograph objects and clothes of her deceased mother. This highly sentimental work will allow her to access international fame. In 2007, she will reproduce this very form documentary by immortalizing on glossy paper objects that belonged to the young women killed in the explosion ofHiroshima. In 2024, she is the winner of the prix Women in Motion for photography, which will be given to him during the opening week of the Arles Photographic Meetings.
Nishimura Tamiko (born 1948): the darkroom virtuoso
Certainly one of the precursors of the photography said Shishashin (“photography of the intimate”). She began her career in 1969, at a time when women were very little considered by the art world, and more particularly by that ofimageThis will not prevent him from exploring the world through his lens, thus offering an artistic production rich in many territories (Japan, Europe, etc.).
Curious and inventive, Tamiko Nishimura experiments with development techniques in black roomfavoring long poses to obtain renderings with a spiritual, and ultimately theatrical, atmosphere, as a nod to his first passion for dramatic art.
Hara Mikiko (born 1967): Creator of enigmatic and evanescent images
In the work of Hara Mikiko, chance has always held a preponderant place, and this since the genesis of its relationship with the photographic medium. It took three concomitant elements – the discovery of thecamera from his father, a friend who gave him an enlarger and a photographer who taught her how to make prints – so that she decided to make it her profession.
From there, her photographic technique may seem illogical, she triggers her camera instinctively, accumulating “fragments of everyday life”, never framed, often blurred, her palette of pastel colors accentuating the impression of evanescence and lightness .
Nagashima Yurie (born 1973): the artist and writer who degenders photography
L’artiste 51 year old Tokyo resident, photographer but also writer, has never stopped tackling persistent clichés. In particular concerning the existence of a photography which would be stylistically “feminine”, unlike a more official one made, criticized and dubbed by men. From this insurrection will be born a work published in 2020 entitled From their girl photography to our girly photowhich shifts the gaze and attempts to degender the discourse on the photo. If Yuri Nagashima has made his life and his body an object of perpetual study, to better use the intimate as a tool for political reflection and to strive for universal understanding.
Okabe Momo (born 1981): the photographer who shows the body in its raw state
Aged 43, Okabe Momo is part of this generation of artists who claim total artistic freedom, making an asset of the marginality in which they evolve. His photographs floods freeze and majestically carry his loved ones in postures that border on the codes of porno soft. Whether documenting the various stages of her lovers’ sexual affirmation surgery or her own pregnancy and childbirth… the only limit is in the eye of the beholder. Recognized later in her country than abroad, she was programmed in 2022 at the International Photography Festival, Kyotographie.
“What a joy to see you – Japanese photographers from the 1950s to the present day”, group exhibition as part of the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles 2024, from July 1 to September 29 at the Archbishop’s Palace, Arles.
