PROFILE

PERFIL

My photography career started when I first saw an exhibition of Eugene W. Smith’s life-long work of documentary photos, and decided to start photography herself. That had a great impact on me, for I was a university student then, struggling to write my thesis, thinking that there are some things in life that are impossible to express in words, and some other things are better left unexpressed by words.

Looking at Smith’s pictures with some people’s expressions, which I still do not know how to explain, it occurred to me that maybe in photography, it is possible to show what I had in mind. How I came to be so fascinated by photography is undetectable, in the sense that concerning photography there weren’t anything much special in my family as I grew up, like some stories you hear of someone’s grandfather being a great violinist, and so was his son and his pupil who got married and thus, the 3rd generation girl having the most suitable environment with the best situation than any other rivals her age, would have no doubt of being a great violinist herself.

The only thing I can think of that is directly to do with photos in my childhood is that my Grandpa, Mom’s father, was quite fond of taking photos, and ever since I can remember, he was always carrying camera equipments everywhere, and as a result, I had a whole series of photo-albums of myself, from the day I was born. I heard years later that he wanted to become an artist or a painter, but the circumstances never had let him.

I never really became interested in photography while he was still alive. Maybe the fact that my Mom finished studies in art and design had influenced me? She taught us, my sisters and some of my friends in the neighborhood to draw, but that was only for a while during my elementary school days, and moreover, to the contrary of Mom’s wishes, I never was a patient child to sit down for a long time, enough to complete my drawings and paintings. Rather I couldn’t wait to go outside to play, running around, and in school I played sports such as tennis, softball, volleyball, swimming, skiing, etc. I was born in Tokyo, and my family moved to to New York, USA in 1975 when I was starting primary school.

The stay was 4 years, and that I recall, was greatly influential to me, although I realized that after I came back to Tokyo. Back then, living abroad was quite rare, and I was already different to the Japanese society, which is in most cases really uncomfortable here. At Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, I majored in Spanish and Regional Studies of Latin America. My job career was initiated as a staff photographer in Asahi-Shimbun, the celebrated newspaper company in Japan. There, while dealing with the everyday news and photos, I encountered chances of discovering the wonders of the underwater world, and soon after, became assistant to an underwater photographer, Ikuo Nakamura. Eventually I became freelance and from time to time, did interpretations and translations to earn a living. I went diving in the great waters of Coral Sea in Australia, Baja California, Mexico; Belize, Central America, and the wonderful small islands in Okinawa, South Japan. I managed to have some exhibitions on my own with the underwater photos, and then decided it’s time I should re-study photography again, and went to Paris. It was a precious experience for I made really good new friends, and there were many opportunity of seeing some of the best photos in the world.

EXHIBITIONS
2007	Time and Space, Physical Body and the Soul, The Reason that this has to be Photography, --- unexplainably (TOKYO)
2006	Ensemble Orchestral de Paris (TOKYO)
2005	Breathing in Deep, the Wind, A?Dream in Palau(TOKYO)
2005	Why Dance? ---My Dancer Friends and Myself, with Photography(TOKYO)
2004	In the Underwater Unreal World(TOKYO)
2004	Nobody & Nowhere in Particular(TOKYO)
2003	Ensemble Orchestral de Paris(TOKYO)
2002	Sky in Paris and Portfolio in Black and White(TOKYO)
2000	In the Underwater Wander-Land(TOKYO)
2000	The Silent Message(TOKYO)
1999	Symmetry in Blue & Black(TOKYO)