Ishiuchi Miyako (b.1947) is a celebrated Japanese photographer known for her poignant images confronting trauma in post WWII Japan. She is one of a renowned group of photographers, including Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama, who confronted their nation’s past and the dawning of a new era by using their cameras as tools to express, record and explore what it meant to be Japanese at this pivotal moment in history.
Frida by Ishiuchi (2013) is a photographic record of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe and belongings. Following Kahlo’s death in 1954 her husband Diego Riviera began placing her personal effects into the bathroom of their Mexico City house “The Blue House,” which later became the Museo Frida Kahlo. When discovered, Ishiuchi was invited to photograph these artifacts, over 300 unseen relics of Kahlo’s life. Whilst a departure from previous projects, the work reveals Miyako’s continued interest in the traces we leave behind us both as individuals and as a society.
Ishiuchi Miyako represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2005. She received the 50th Mainichi Art Award in 2009 and was invited to participate in the Third ICP Triennial in New York. In March 2014 she received the prestigious Hasselblad award, and her solo exhibition titled “Postwar Shadows” is currently showing at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Ishiuchi’s work is included in the collections of many major institutions such as the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Tate Modern, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
