, is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

. In 2005, she represented Japan at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In March 2014, she became the third Japanese photographer, following

Hiroshi Hamaya was a Japanese photographer active from 1935 to 1999.Mihashi Sumiyo (), "Hamaya Hiroshi", in ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers'' (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ), p.254. In Japanese only, despite the additional En ...

and

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory. Early life and education Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He reportedly took his earliest photographs ...

, to received the

Hasselblad Foundation The Hasselblad Foundation (in full: Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation), established in 1979 at the will of Victor Hasselblad, is a fully independent, not-for-profit foundation based at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden. The main aim of the F ...

International Award in Photography. Ishiuchi's work is included in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, The

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

, Los Angeles, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, San Francisco, and the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

Life and work

Ishiuchi was born March 27, 1947 in

Nitta District, Gunma Historic Map of Nitta District:1. Ōta, 2. Kuai, 3.Sawano, 4. Ojima, 5. Serada, 6. Kizaki, 7. Hosen, 8. Torinogo, 9. Godo, 10. Izushina, 11.Watauchi 12. Yabuzukahonmachi, 12.Kasakake was formerly a rural district located in Gunma Prefecture, Ja ...

, Japan, and raised in

Yokosuka, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

. She graduated from Yokosuka City Public High school and was admitted to the design department at

Tama Art University or is a private art university located in Tokyo, Japan. It is known as one of the top art schools in Japan. History The forerunner of Tamabi was Tama Imperial Art School (多摩帝国美術学校, Tama Teikoku Bijutsu Gakkō) founded in 1935. ...

, where she specialized in textile dying and weaving. She left the department in her second year. Ishiuchi grew up in Kiryu and Yokosuka, home to the largest Navel base in the East. There, she remained until she was 19. "The scars of adolescence that I sustained there had a big effect on me, and you could say that Yokosuka was the starting point for my photography," the artist tells ''Ocula Magazine'' in 2021. Ishiuchi began photographing with one of the most renowned generations in Japanese photography, which included such photographers as Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu. These photographers were dealing with postwar trauma while also exploring new directions in photography for the new, postwar era. Ishiuchi has produced full collections of

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

since the late 1970s. Her first photo series was a study of Yokosuka, ''Yokosuka Stories'' (1976-1977), documenting the city where she grew up. While working with them, Ishiuchi organized the all-women photography exhibition ''Hyakka Ryoran'' at the Shimizu Gallery in 1976. In 1979, she won the

Kimura Ihei Award The is a Japanese photography award. The award has been given every year since 1975 (except 1983) by the Asahi Shimbun Company, publisher of ''Asahi Shimbun'' and the magazine '' Asahi Camera'', in honor of the photographer Ihei Kimura was a J ...

for her photoalbum ''APARTMENT'' and her photography exhibition ''Apaato''. Her work favors the oversize grainy prints and gritty subject matter that characterize the pictures of many photographers in the late 1960s and 1970s who preferred the ''are-bure,'' or grainy-blurry.Photography Review; Moments of Ravaging Time
, ''New York Times,'' May 19, 2000. Accessed 6 August 2008. She began to take close-ups of the bodies of the very old in the early 1990s. More recently, her photographs have addressed themes of skin, clothing, and time. In ''Hiroshima'' (2008), she photographed the clothes of victims from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In ''Frida: Love and Pain'' (2012), she was invited by the

Frida Kahlo Museum The Frida Kahlo Museum (Spanish: ''Museo Frida Kahlo''), also known as the Blue House (''La Casa Azul'' for the structure's cobalt-blue walls, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

to photograph

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

's personal artifacts, including corsets, clothing, shoes, rings, combs and other accessories, makeup, and medicines. In 2022, she held her first show in Scotland at

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

's Stills studio. The exhibition showed selected photographs from her previous series ''Mother's'', ''Hiroshima'' and ''Frida''.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* ''Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows'',

Getty Center The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views over ...

, Los Angeles, CA, October 2015 – February 2016. A retrospective. * ''Grain and Shadow'',

Yokohama Museum of Art , founded in 1989, is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 district of the Japanese city Yokohama, next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower. The collections The museum has works by many influential and well-known modern artists including Consta ...

, Yokohama, Japan, December 2017 – March 2018. A retrospective. * ''Ishiuchi Miyako'', Stills, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2022 – October 2022.

Group exhibitions

* 1994: ''Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky'',

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

, New York * 2005:

* 2016-2017: ''Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now,''

, San Francisco

Awards

* 1979: Kimura Ihei Award * 1999: Higashikawa Prize, Domestic Photographer Prize * 1999: Society of Photographer Award * 2006: The Photographic Society of Japan * 2009: Mainichi Art Award * 2013: Medal of Honor, Purple Ribbon * 2014: Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography

Collections

Ishiuchi's work is held in the following public collections: *

, New York *

, Los Angeles *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishiuchi, Miyako 1947 births Living people Japanese photographers Japanese contemporary artists Fine art photographers Japanese women photographers People from Gunma Prefecture People from Yokosuka, Kanagawa Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon 21st-century Japanese people 20th-century photographers 20th-century Japanese women artists 20th-century women photographers 21st-century women photographers Artists from Gunma Prefecture