About the Japanese photographer, Miyuki OKUYAMA
Miyuki OKUYAMA made her B.A. and her M.A., at The University of Alabama. Her images are often taken with the perspective of an expatriate Japanese. For more than 20 years, she has been living away from home and it was after she moved away from home when she started photographing. Yet, her creations are deeply rooted into her childhood in Tohoku, northeastern Japan. Being away from home became one of her most important drives for photography. Through photographing, she seeks connections to her origin.
When she was settling down in her new home, as a reaction to the new environment, she tried photographing using alternatives ways (a self-made pinhole cameras, shooting self-built models etc.), as an improvisation for photographing actual home. Compared to her home in a rural village, her new home seemed thoroughly modernized and overly organized, leaving little space for raw and improvised places to feed human emotions. In the photography, she wanted to try creating alternative realities, which may re-connect her to her familiar world and childhood memories.
In 2011, the devastating earthquake hit northern Japan, causing the Tsunami and the nuclear power plant explosion. These events in her homeland urged her to face the fact that one’s home is not a stable place and shocked her innocently unsuspecting idea that her home would be there forever. After that, she started new series: travel photos shot on her way from Holland to Tohoku with trains and a ferry through Eurasia to measure the physical and psychological distance, and an ongoing project on her slowly changing home. At the same time, she tackled documenting the Japanese-Dutch war children born of the WW2. Through working on these series, she hopes to capture the world directly surrounding herself, through her own views as an expatriate.
Photo publications by Miyuki OKUYAMA
- 'Land of the Setting Sun' (2013, hand made)
'Dear japanese' (2014)
'The Akahata' (2017, Japanese newspaper)
'At Dusk' (2022)
Exhibtions (a selection)
- 2010:
'That Shimmering Beast', The Empty Quarter, Dubai; 'Over schaal en
tijd', Plaatsmaken, Arnhem; 'Nightward', MK galerie, Rotterdam
2011: 'Ikoku Tokai', Coalface Lab, Genk, BE; 'MärklinWorld,' Kunsthal KADE, Amersfoort
2012: ‘Disturbia', CODA museum, Aperdoorn and at Kunstenlab, Deventer, NL; 'Who’s Afraid of Oriental Girls', De Mondriaantoren, Amsterdam; 'MK Award Fundraising Show', Rotterdam; 'Shadow Performers', Galerie de Expeditie, Amsterdam
2013: 'Delhi Photo Festival 2013', Print Exhibition; 'Afterimage', web exhibition, Gurdian Garden, Tokyo; 'Passages', Velp, NL
2014: 'Doh Mix Meh Up: Diaspora and Identity in Art', University of Oxford; 'Obscura Festival/Asian Women Photographers Showcase',
Penang, Malaysia; 'Phantom Reality Reset', TETEM, Enschede; 'HOE=HET NU', ACEC, Apeldoorn, NL
2015: 'Spine Photobook Fesitival', Dummy Award, Stockholm; 'Encontros da Imagem book exhibition', Braga, Portugal; 'Dear Japanese', Nagasaki Peace Museum; 'Reminders Project Stronghold', Tokyo; 'Foto Noviembre', Santa Cruz de Tenerife
2016: 'Dear Japanese,' Ritsumeikan Peace Museum, Kyoto and at Museum Bronbeek, Arnhem; 'Feria de Libros de Fotos de Autor', Buenos Aires
2017: 'Dear Japanese', Cortona On The Move, Italy; 'At Dusk', Galerie NUN, Arnhem
2018: 'Pale Red Dot', VOID, Athens Photo Festival
2019: PHOTO IS:RAEL, Tel Aviv; Swiss Photo-Three Award, Lugano; 'Dear Japanese', Platform for Humanistic Photography, Ede, NL; 'Unyielding Gaze', Kuala Lumpur Photo Award for journalistic portraits
2020: 'Nightfall' Museum Arnhem; 'Reimagining War', Osaka
2021: 'Stateless: war displaced Filipino Japanese', Tokyo
2022: The 6th Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Salon der Künstler, Museum Kurhaus KleveFotografia Europea + Skinnerboox Book Award presentation, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Jakarta International Photo Festival, Indonesia
Awards
- 2019: Winner at Swiss Photo Three, Lugano
2022: Winner at Fotografia Europe + Skinnerboox BOOK AWARD with 'At Dusk'