Miyako Ishiuchi and Katayama Mari in Conversation
Join us at the International Center of Photography for a special conversation between photographers Miyako Ishiuchi and Katayama Mari, moderated by curator Pauline Vermare.Â
The artists will discuss the wide-ranging scope of their career, including both Katayama’s and Miyako’s work on view in the current exhibition I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now.Â
Spanning photography, installation, photobooks, and printed matter, the exhibition explores the experiences and perspectives of women in Japan through delicate and blunt observations of everyday life, critical reflections on the roles inhabited and reshaped by Japanese women, and approaches that push the boundaries of photography. The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication (Aperture, 2024) that expands upon the content of the show through essays, historical material, and a comprehensive bibliography of photobooks made by Japanese women.
This program is being offered both in person at ICP and online. For more information and to purchase tickets, see here.
The 2026-2027 Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks Photographer Lecture Series is made possible through generous support from the Rosenblum Family. Additional support for this program was provided by the Japan Foundation, New York and for Miyako Ischiuchi, by Marukawa Collection.
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Image: Ishiuchi Miyako, from the series Yokosuka Story, 1976–77; from Ishiuchi Miyako: Traces (Aperture, 2026). © Ishiuchi Miyako. Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya
Miyako Ishiuchi is a Japanese photographer based in Gunma prefecture. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Kimura Ihei Memorial Photographic Award (1978) and the Hasselblad Award (2014). Her work is included in collections worldwide.
Katayama Mari is a multidisciplinary artist based in Gunma, Japan. Born in 1987 in Saitama, she graduated with a Master’s degree from the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012. Katayama’s artistic practice begins with intricately hand-sewn fabric objects which feature in her photography, video, and activist art projects. She uses her body as a living sculpture, a mannequin and a lens through which to reflect society and our environment.
Pauline Vermare is the Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum. She was previously the cultural director of Magnum Photos, New York, and a curator at the International Center of Photography, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris.
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