Photographer #454: Manabu Yamanaka

Manabu Yamanaka, 1959, Japan, is a photographer who focuses mainly on societal outcasts. In 2009 he released a monograph entitled Gyahtei which shows the six major series he has created during a period of 25 years, all with titles that originate from Buddhism. One of those series is Jyoudo; a collection of photographs portraying physically deformed human beings, including some of the worst kind of deformation imaginable. Manabu noticed that even in this state "I saw how truly natural each one of their lives really were." Amongst his other subjects are elderly photographed in the nude, street children and homeless people. His images are strong, powerful, (un)comforting and might sometimes be hard to digest. His latest body of work is a series of images that show unborn and deformed embryos. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world and has appeared in numerous publications. The following images come from the series Jyoudo, Gyahtei and Fujohkan.

Website: www.ask.ne.jp/~yamanaka/

Photographer #430: Rinko Kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi, 1972, Japan, is a fine art photographer based in Tokyo. She studied at the Seian University of Art and Design and graduated in 1993. She started as a photographer on a freelance basis from 1997. In 2001 she launched herself into the photographic world with the simultaneous release of 3 books, UTATANE, HANABI and HANAKO. Since then she has released a large number of monographs of which the latest addition is Illuminance. Her images seem simple, but they evoke primal emotions within the viewer. By paying attention to tiny gestures and incidental details within her environment she finds the extraordinary within the mundane. The editing within her books is crucial to her work and the stories she wishes to tell. The photographs show a large range of emotions and fundamentally adresses life itself, from the good all the way to the bad. Her work has been exhibited extensively in solo and group shows around the world and is in several public collections as the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Phtography and Huis Marseille in Amsterdam. The following images come from the books Illuminance, AILA and Cui Cui.

Website: www.rinkokawauchi.com

Photographer #409: Shinya Arimoto

Shinya Arimoto, 1971, Japan, is a conceptual documentary photographer who studied at the School of Visual Arts in Osaka. Within his body of work there is a lot of street photography containing images of structures, objects, women and homeless people. In contrast to a lot of other street photographers he does not just snap his camera but carefully creates the images showing a photographer who communicates with his subjects. The world he shows us is chaotic and vibrant yet he manages to create a sense of calm within his photographs. His story-telling images are well-composed, sensitive and intimate. His work has been exhibited on numerous occasions in Japan. The Totem Pole Photo Gallery released two limited edition 20 page books with his work. The following images come from the portfolios Ariphoto2011 Vol.1, Ariphoto2009 Vol.3 Why Now Tibet and Ariphoto2009 Vol.1.

Website: www.arimotoshinya.com

Photographer #404: Hiroshi Watanabe

Hiroshi Watanabe, 1951, Japan, is a California based photographer who graduated from the Department of Photography at Nihon University in 1975. He moved to the US and started working in the production of TV commercials. Later he even created his own production company. 20 years later, in 1995, he started to photograph again and travel the world. He closed the production company in 2000 and has since devoted his time to be a photographer. Hiroshi is interested in what humans do, seeking to capture people and traditions. In 2010 he released the book Love Point which contains studio images of sexdolls mixed with images of real girls dressed in the same way. For his book Suo Sarumawashi he photographed a tradition that has existed for over a thousand years in Japan. Dancing and performing monkeys were initially used as a form of religious ritual to protect the horses of warriors. Today they perform acrobatic stunts and comedic skits for an audience. He took intimate portraits of the monkeys, displaying human-like features. Hiroshi has released a large number of books and his work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world. The following images come from the series Love Point, Suo Sarumawashi and Kabuki Players.

Website: www.hiroshiwatanabe.com

Photographer #397: Ikuru Kuwajima

Ikuru Kuwajima, 1984, Japan, is a photojournalist and documentary photographer. He studied photojournalism at the University of Missouri. After his studies in the USA he moved to Romania to work on various photographic projects. He relocated to the Ukraine and is currently based in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In Astana, the second coldest capital in the world, he focused on inner tropical resorts and recreational facilities themed with palm trees. He shows the contrasts of the unique winter urbanscape of the oil rich capital. Other projects have concentrated on the traditions of Cossacks, the conflict of the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, an ethnic group in Tajikistan called the Yagnobi and drug addicts in the Ukraine amongst others. The following images come from the series Astana's Winter Urbanscape, Cossack Revival in Crimea and Ukraine Drug.

Website: www.ikurukuwajima.com

Photographer #390: Ken Kitano

Ken Kitano, 1968, Japan, is a conceptual photographer who uses long exposures and piles images on top of each other to create a new photograph. He has been working on the series Our Face since 1999. He shoots portraits of various social groups as young girls in Harajuku, office workers, farm village women in Bangladesh and supporters of the English national soccer team. Each time he shoots various dozens of evenly taken portraits which he piles on top of each other. The more faces that are printed, the more the contours of an individual become blurred and the expressions and ages become more ambigious in the final portrait. The project started in Asia, but should cover the American continent, Europe and Africa in the future. In 2005 he released the book Our Face. In his series One Day Kitano captures specifically chosen locations using an exposure time that stretches from sunrise to sunset. The following images come from the series Our Face, One Day and City Flow and Fusion.

Website: www.ourface.com

Photographer #285: Kosuke Okahara

Kosuke Okahara, 1980, Japan, is a photojournalist who has been covering stories around the world since 2003. He made a lot of photographs throughout the years in Colombia, dealing with drug wars and the drug business, journeys of illigal migrants to the USA, the harsh emerald minig business and the ordinary life of a Colombian hitman amongst others. Besides Colombia Kosuke has traveled from South Africa to France, Sudan to Burma and China to most recently Libya. Stories of self mutilating girls in Japan, the protests in Thailand and abandoned leprosy villages in China are all in his large portfolio. He received several awards and grants and has exhibited his work throughout Europe and Asia. His work has been published in many of the leading magazines and newspapers. The following images come from the current civil war in Libya and the stories Almost Paradise (Colombia - Mexico) and Rebels on the Edge (Burma).

Website: www.kosukeokahara.com

Photographer #262: Sohei Nishino

Sohei Nishino, 1982, Japan, has made 100 thousands of images, yet only has 12 photographs in his portfolio. The way he works only permits him to finish three images in one year. He walks in a city for a month or longer, photographing all the buildings from every possible angle. In the following months he hand prints a selection of several thousand images to piece them all together with scissors and glue to make one single map of that city. It resembles an aerial map. However, the map is not a precise geographic recreation, but shows all the iconic features and landmarks. In the last stage of his work he photographs the end result, creating one image that is full of detail. He used the same technique for two images in color that show an imaginary nightscape and an Island. The following images are from the series Diorama Map and the images Night and i-Land.

Website: www.soheinishino.com

Photographer #258: Kanako Sasaki

Kanako Sasaki, 1976, Japan, is a conceptual photographer who also uses video for her projects. She travels all over the world to work on her photographic stories. She often uses herself as an actor in her photographs. Since 2001 she has exhibited throughout the world. In her series Walking in the Jungle, which was created after she read the Diary of Anne Frank, she recreates historical events and mixes them with her own memories and imagination. In this way she creates situations that are not fiction, yet they are not non-fiction either. In the series Wanderlust she explored her own imaginative world, influenced by Japanese novels, her own memories and Ukiyo-e paintings. The following images come from the series Walking in the Jungle, Ukiyo 1 - The World of Groping and Wanderlust.

Website: www.kanakosasaki.com

Photographer #235: Miwa Yanagi

Miwa Yanagi, 1967, Japan, got recognized in 1994 with her series Elevator Girl which showed groups of uniformed girls in large and sterile interiors. Her photography is often theatrical and manipulated. Her latest series; Windswept Women shows gigantic women of different ages in warrior postures. The final prints are also immense. In My Grandmothers she asked young women to imagine their lives 50 years in the future. She then went on to photograph the women with the use of make-up and other attributes. In Fairy Tale she restaged scenes from fairy tales as Snow White and Cinderella. Her work is mostly about women in combination with the Japanese culture. The following images come from the series Windswept Women, My Grandmothers and Fairy Tale.

Website: www.yanagimiwa.net

Photographer #218: Mayumi Lake

Mayumi Lake, 1966, Japan, is a conceptual artist. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she received a BFA and an MFA. Her photography and video work explores issues as sexual identity, desire, memory and fantasy. She uses herself and others as models. In her series My Idol she revisited her childhood fantasies from an adult perspective. For Ex Post Facto Lake also went back to her childhood memories. Both of her grandfathers died during WWII and it was her fantasy to get them back. In staged photographs she tells us her own story. The following images come from the series Æther, Ex Post Facto and My Idol.

Website: www.mayumilake.com

Photographer #182: Sayaka Maruyama

Sayaka Maruyama, 1983, Japan, is an artist that uses various techniques in her artwork. She draws, paints, designs and edits films, but most of all she photographs. She often works together with hair and head prop artist Tomihiro Kono, also in the series Japan Avant Garde, which is based on her feelings as a Japanese living abroad. The images of Sayaka are often dark, mysterious but do sometimes contain bizarre colours. The following images come from the series Japan Avant Garde, Tori-Onna and Silent Conversation.

Website: www.syk-jp.com

Photographer #168: Lieko Shiga

Lieko Shiga, 1980, Japan, graduated in 2004 at the Chelsea University of Art and Design in London. Since then she has released two books, Lilly in 2007 and CANARY in 2009. Her photographs are mysterious, intimate and emotional. For her series Lilly she photographed the people living in her block in East London. She covered an outside wall completely with a black cloth and photographed the people in front of it. The entire project consists of 80 images. The following images come from her series CANARY, Lilly and Damien Court.

Website: www.liekoshiga.com

Photographer #080: Kimiko Yoshida

Kimiko Yoshida, Japan, 1963, has build an impressive body of work that consists of self-portraits. The oppression she felt in her homeland made her leave Japan. About her work and Japan she says the following: "Since I fled my homeland to escape the mortifying servitude and humiliating fate of Japanese women, I amplified, through my art, a feminist stance of protest against contemporary cliches of seduction, against voluntary servitude of women, against "identity" defined by appurtenances and "communities", against the stereotypes of "gender" and the determinism of heredity."
The following images come from the series Paintings Self-Portraits 2010, Blown Glass Symbols 2009 and Self-Portraits 2006-2009.

Website: www.kimiko.fr

Photographer #039: Taisuke Koyama

Japanese photographer Taisuke Koyama, 1978, zooms in on the city of Tokyo. With his macro lens he makes photographs of organic abstractions. The images may look like graphic objects at first glance, but when one looks closer you will see overlooked transformations of the city. These photographs come from the series Entropix that he is still working on today, but was also released as a publication in 2008.

Currently he is working on a series called Rainbow Form. He states: "At a glance, these photographs look like graphic design due to its flatness. On the contrary, In reality, this image is composed with more layers; printing dots that compose a image of rainbow, dust of paper, surface condensation, scratch and adheres on the invisible plastic board which exists in the front of the paper, and the shadows on the paper caused by those."

Website: www.tiskkym.com
(Video in Japanese)

Photographer #037: Mika Ninagawa

Mika Ninagawa, Japan, 1972, is a very productive photographer. Her images are full of colour and still have a direct link to the ancient arts of Japan. She has been exhibited all over the world and she been published in 35 books in the last 13 years. The following pictures come from the series Flowers and Fashion & Portraits.

Website: www.ninamika.com