Paris Photo 2014

The Third Gallery Aya is very pleased to announce a solo show by Ishiuchi Miyako in Paris Photo this year.

Ishiuchi Miyako(born in 1947) is regarded as a leading female photographer in Japan.

In 2014, she received the Hassleblad Award. Her solo exhibition at the Hassleblad Center runs from 7th of November. She will also have a solo show titled “Postwar Shadows” at the Getty Museum from September 2015. At this point, she is not merely a Japanese photographer, but a leading international photographer.

Thus, we would like to present a comprehensive history of her works from the last 35 years.

She started her career photographing the landscape in Yokosuka, known as an American base in Japan. Though she was born in Gunma Prefecture, she grew up in Yokosuka.

Her early trilogy was made over four years. The first work is titled “Yokosuka Story,” the second “Apartment,” and the third “Endless Night.”

We would like to show these three works and “Club & Courts,” photographed in the EM club for military officers which was a symbol of the American base in Yokosuka.

We would also like to show the next step in her work, exemplified by her pictures of the body and skin. When she turned 40, Ishiuchi began photographing the hands and feet of women the same age. This was a turning point in her career because she switched from objects in landscapes and traces of buildings to the human body and skin. She named this series “1・9・4・7” after her birth year.

Ishiuchi is very interested in the time that accumulates landscapes and bodies. She has continued to photograph objects related to this theme, but the images have changed.

This transformation is very interesting. We would like to show this series as the second important development in her career. We believe that we can provide an interesting contrast by showing her early trilogy and “1・9・4・7” together.

We will also show more recent works from “Mother’s, “ひろしま/hiroshima” and “Frida by Ishiuchi”. Ishiuchi represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2005. She showed photographed the objects her late mother left behind, particularly things that touched her mother’s body. These are very personal works, but we believe we can share a sense of mourning not only for her mother but other mothers.

We also believe that Ishiuchi depicts women’s way of life through these three later series.

“Mother’s“ is her mother’s life, “ひろしま/hiroshima” is anonymous people’s lives, especially young girls who were victims of the atomic bomb, and “Frida by Ishiuchi” is different aspect of the artist Frida Kahlo’s life.

In regard to “ひろしま/hiroshima”, the victims have often been seen as mere symbols. But through Ishiuchi’s works, the vivid colors of the dresses, beautiful watches, and cosmetic bottles make us feel that they were really alive before the atomic bomb.

About for “Frida by Ishiuchi,” Frida Kahlo was a famously strong woman and known for a host of scandals. But we can find different aspects including her pain in these pictures showing the different height of the heels on her shoes and other minute aspects of her daily life such as darned stockings and mended dresses.