TRANSCENDENCE brings together the work of six Japanese female photographers who explore the multiple languages of photography, transforming it into a tool of affirmation and resilience: Hosokura Mayumi, Iwane Ai, Okabe Momo, Suzuki Mayumi, Tonomura Hideka, and Yoshida Tamaki.

Inspired by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, conceived in 2020 by Lucille Reyboz, Yusuke Nakanishi, and Pauline Vermare to celebrate the tenth edition of KYOTOGRAPHIE, TRANSCENDENCE continues to highlight the experiences of several of these photographers. Through their images, they convey their intimate or collective experiences, echoing the complexity and evolution of contemporary Japanese society.

For Walking, Diving, Hosokura Mayumi uses the cyanotype technique to create a cartography of the very personal experience that is vision. Iwane Ai overlays cherry blossoms with biographical elements in a series entitled A NEW RIVER, created during the pandemic. In HOJO, Suzuki Mayumi blends nude self-portraits, sonograms, and photographs of oddly shaped vegetables to poetically evoke her experience with infertility treatments. Through their series Bible and ILMATAR, Okabe Momo offers an intimate and raw portrayal of gender issues, transcended by her unique use of colors. With 魂トリップ soul trip Tonomura Hideka takes us through an initiatory journey in Korea, tracing the love that united her grandparents, surpassing the borders of hate in our societies. In Negative Ecology, Yoshida Tamaki experiments with household chemicals to alter images of plants and animals, translating into the realm of the fantastical the disastrous consequences of our lifestyles on the ecosystem.

All of the six series were produced by the artist in Japan. They unfold in an original scenography designed by Hiromitsu Konishi, with whom the festival has worked since its first edition, in collaboration with the craftsman Masahiro Inoue. TRANSCENDENCE was conceived as a kaleidoscope highlighting each of these six photographers in a celebration of the power of vulnerability, the beauty of diversity, and the unyielding spirit of women who dare to rewrite their story, and History, through the power of photography.

Date: 7.1―9.29 2024
Opening Hours: 10:00―19:30
Entrace Fee: €6
Venue: Vague Arles
Address: 14 Rue de Grille,
13200 Arles, France

For more information

Hosokura Mayumi

細倉真弓

Born in Kyoto in 1979, Hosokura Mayumi experiments with photographic imagery to question the boundaries regarded as natural between the organic and the mineral, the human and the animal, the human and the machine, as well as racial or sexual identities. In 2011, she won the FOAM Talent Award for her series Kazan. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in Japan and abroad, as well as solo exhibitions, notably Walking, Diving (Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2023), New Skin (mumei, Tokyo, Japan, 2019) , and Jubilee (nomad nomad studio, Hong Kong, 2017). She has published several books, including New Skin (MACK, 2020), Jubilee (artbeat publishers, 2017), and Transparency is the New Mystery (MACK, 2016). In 2022, she was among the ten photographers highlighted by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, organized to celebrate the ten years of KYOTOGRAPHIE.

Mayumi Hosokura, <i>Walking, diving</i> <br class='--mq'>© Mayumi Hosokura

Mayumi Hosokura, Walking, diving
© Mayumi Hosokura

Iwane Ai

岩根愛

Born in Tokyo in 1975, Iwane Ai began her photography career in 1996 after studying at an alternative institution in the United States. She initially focused on the situation of minority communities around the world before turning her attention to Japanese culture in Hawaii from 2006. Since 2013, she has been exploring the link between the American island and Fukushima through the lens of immigration and partly settled in Fukushima. This project led to the book Kipuka (Seigensha Art Publishing, 2018), which won the 44th Kimura Ihei Photography Award and the 44th Ina Nobuo Award, and the 2022 Prix Pictet Japan Award. Her images, close to magical realism, are a means for her to express the deep connection she feels with nature, ancient rites and beliefs. Her series A NEW RIVER was published by bookshop M in 2020, following the publication of Journey to Kipuka (Ohta Publishing, 2018) and Hawaii-shima no Bon Dance (Fukuinkan Shoten, 2016). In 2022, she was among the ten photographers highlighted by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, organized to celebrate the ten years of KYOTOGRAPHIE.

Ai Iwane, <i>A NEW RIVER</i> <br class='--mq'>© Ai Iwane

Ai Iwane, A NEW RIVER
© Ai Iwane

Ai Iwane, My Cherry 2024 from the series <i>A NEW RIVER</i> <br class='--mq'>© Ai Iwane

Ai Iwane, My Cherry 2024 from the series A NEW RIVER
© Ai Iwane

Ai Iwane, A NEW RIVER
© Ai Iwane

Okabe Momo

岡部桃

Born in 1981 in Tokyo, Okabe Momo has been exploring gender issues for several years through intimate and raw documentary images which make use of expressive colors. Her first two publications, Dildo (Session Press, 2013) and Bible (Session Press, 2014), which portray the experience of trans identity, received the prestigious FOAM Paul Huf Award in 2015, leading to an exhibition at the Foam Photography Museum in Amsterdam. Her series ILMATAR takes us into the intimacy of her pregnancy as an asexual person. Her works have been exhibited at Fotografiska (Stockholm, 2021, and New York, 2022), the National Gallery of Australia (2020), and the Museum Sieboldhuis (2019). In 2022, she was among the ten photographers highlighted by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, organized to celebrate the ten years of KYOTOGRAPHIE.

Momo Okabe, <i>ILMATAR</i>, 2017 <br class='--mq'>© Momo Okabe

Momo Okabe, ILMATAR, 2017
© Momo Okabe

Momo Okabe, <i>Bible</i>, 2014 <br class='--mq'>© Momo Okabe

Momo Okabe, Bible, 2014
© Momo Okabe

Suzuki Mayumi

鈴木麻弓

Born in Onagawa in 1977, Suzuki Mayumi is a visual storyteller who draws her narratives from her personal history. She grew up in a family of photographers, witnessing the daily life of the studio her grandfather opened in 1930. The death of her parents during the destruction of her village by the 2011 tsunami triggered a visceral need to document the efforts of the region’s survivors. In 2017, she published The Restoration Will, about the loss of her parents, which received several awards, including the PhotoBoox Grand Prix (Italy) and the 2018 PHOTO ESPAÑA International Division Best Photobook of the Year (Spain). In 2020, she continued her autobiographical documentary approach with HOJO, an intimate and poetic portrait of her experience with infertility treatments. In 2022, she was among the ten photographers highlighted by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, organized to celebrate the ten years of KYOTOGRAPHIE.

Mayumi Suzuki, <i>HOJO</i> <br class='--mq'>© Mayumi Suzuki

Mayumi Suzuki, HOJO
© Mayumi Suzuki

Tonomura Hideka

殿村任香

Born in 1979, Tonomura Hideka uses photography to explore ideas of “reality and actuality”. In 2008, she made a strong impact with the publication of her first book Mama Love (Akaaka Art Publishing), which revealed buried sorrows and dark family secrets. Five years later, she published They Called Me Yukari with Zen Foto Gallery, about the people she met while working as a hostess in a Shinjuku bar. Since 2019, she has been working on a series titled Shining Woman Project, about women fighting cancer. Her works have been exhibited in Japan and internationally, notably at the Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery (London, 2018) and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris, 2022). Her first series, Mama Love, joined the collection of the MEP, Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, in 2022. That same year, she was among the ten photographers highlighted by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, organized to celebrate the ten years of KYOTOGRAPHIE.

Hideka Tonomura, <i>soul trip</i>, 2012-2020 <br class='--mq'>© Hideka Tonomura

Tamaki Yoshida

𠮷田多麻希

The fantastical atmosphere of Yoshida Tamaki’s images (born in Kobe, 1975) explores the connection between humans and their surrounding ecosystems. In 2019, her expressive portraits of breath through a thermal camera won the Grand Prix of the Canon New Cosmos of Photography. In her experimental series Negative Ecology, which earned her the Grand Prix KYOTOGRAPHIE Satellite KG+SELECT in 2021, she altered animal images with household chemicals to highlight the disastrous consequences of our lifestyles on nature. In 2022, she was among the ten photographers highlighted by the exhibition 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers, organized to celebrate the ten years of KYOTOGRAPHIE.

Tamaki Yoshida, <i>Negative Ecology</i> <br class='--mq'>© Tamaki Yoshida

TRANSCENDENCE
with
Hosokura Mayumi,
Iwane Ai,
Okabe Momo,
Suzuki Mayumi,
Tonomura Hideka,
Yoshida Tamaki

Curation by: Lucille Reyboz & Nakanishi Yusuke
Scenography by: Hiromitsu Konishi
Exhibition presented by: KYOTOGRAPHIE
Kyoto International Photography Festival
co-produced by
with the support of
This exhibition is part of the "Arles Associé" sequence of the Rencontres d’Arles.
Venue: Vague (Arles)
Date: 7.1―9.29 2024