I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now

A critical and celebratory counter-narrative to what we know of Japanese photography today. I’m So Happy You Are Here presents a much-needed counterpoint, complement, and challenge to historical precedents and the established canon of Japanese photography. This restorative history presents a wide range of photographic approaches brought to bear on the lived experiences and perspectives of women in Japanese society. Editors Pauline Vermare and Lesley A. Martin, curator and writer Takeuchi Mariko, and photo-historians Carrie Cushman and Kelly Midori McCormick provide a critical historical and contemporary framework for understanding the work in three richly illustrated essays. Additional context is provided by an in-depth illustrated bibliography by Marc Feustel and Russet Lederman, and a selection of key critical writings from leading Japanese curators, critics, and historians such as Kasahara Michiko, Fuku Noriko, and others, many of which will be published in translation for the first time. While this book does not claim to be fully comprehensive or encyclopedic, its goal is to provide a solid foundation for a more thorough conversation about the contributions of Japanese women to photography—and an indispensable resource for anyone interested in a more robust history of Japanese photography.   Made possible in partnership with the Renconres d'Arles and Kering.

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 440
Number of images: 518
Publication date: 2024-09-17
Measurements: 8.25 x 11 inches
ISBN: 9781597115537

Pauline Vermare is an independent photography historian and curator based in New York City. She was formerly the cultural director of Magnum Photos in New York, and curator at the International Center of Photography and Museum of Modern Art. Vermare was the curator of 10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers for the 2022 Kyotographie International Photography Festival. The same year, she received the chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture.
Lesley A. Martin is executive director of Printed Matter. Previously, she was the creative director of Aperture, where she served as editor on more than one hundred fifty books on photography, and was the founding publisher of The PhotoBook Review.

Takeuchi Mariko is a photography critic, curator, and professor at Kyoto University of the Arts. Previously, she served as visiting researcher at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and at the National Museum of Art, Osaka.

Carrie Cushman is the Edith Dale Monson Gallery Director and Curator at the Hartford Art School. She holds a PhD in Art History from Columbia University and is a specialist in postwar and contemporary art and photography from Japan. With Kelly Midori McCormick, she was principal investigator and co-director of the SSHRC IDG–funded project “Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography.”
Kelly Midori McCormick is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. She received her PhD from University of California, Los Angeles, and an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. With Carrie Cushman, she was principal investigator and codirector of “Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography.”
Marc Feustel is a Paris-based independent curator, writer, and editor specializing in Japanese photography.
Russet Lederman is a writer, editor, and photobook collector based in New York. Previously, she taught art writing at the School of Visual Arts and cofounded 10×10 Photobooks.