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

Curated by Lesley A. Martin, Takeuchi Mariko, and Pauline Vermare

I’m So Happy You Are Here offers a much-needed counterpoint, complement, and challenge to historical precedents and the established canon—an electrifying expansion of our understanding of Japanese photographic history, but also of photo history writ large. Over the past decade, the world of photography has made a concerted effort to fill critical gaps in its historiography. The excavation and recovery of women’s work serves as a testament to the liberating nature of self-representation and self-expression, and to the importance of photography as a medium to express and share one’s own story: to be heard and to be seen. This restorative survey presents a wide range of photographic approaches brought to bear on the experiences and perspectives of women on their lives and on Japanese society, and showcases their creativity through key images, installation-based works, video, and photobooks. With a focus on material from the 1950s to now, I’m So Happy You Are Here presents a selection of intergenerational artists—many of whom have been recognized for their vital contributions, while others have developed unique and important practices without substantial public recognition. This collection of historical and contemporary works weaves together three major motifs—observations of everyday life that are both delicate and blunt; critical perspectives on the roles inhabited—and often reinterpreted—by Japanese women; as well as experiments with and extensions of the photographic form. Together, these works provide a solid foundation for a more nuanced and expansive conversation about the contributions of Japanese women to photography.

Featuring the work of Hara Mikiko, Hiromix, Ishikawa Mao, Ishiuchi Miyako, Katayama Mari, Kawauchi Rinko, Komatsu Hiroko, Kon Michiko, Nagashima Yurie, Narahashi Asako, Nishimura Tamiko, Noguchi Rika, Nomura Sakiko, Okabe Momo, Okanoue Toshiko, Onodera Yuki, Sawada Tomoko, Shiga Lieko, Sugiura Kunié, Tawada Yuki, Tokiwa Toyoko, Ushioda Tokuko, Watanabe Hitomi, Yamazawa Eiko, and Yanagi Miwa, among others

Pauline Vermare is the Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum. Previously, she served as the cultural director of Magnum Photos in New York, and curator at the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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.

Lesley A. Martin is executive director of Printed Matter. Formerly, she was the creative director of Aperture, where she served as editor on more than one hundred books on photography, and founding publisher of The PhotoBook Review.

Image credits: Kawauchi Rinko, Untitled, 2004; from the series the eyes the ears, courtesy the artist; Watanabe Hitomi, Untitled, 1968–69; from the series Tōdai Zenkyōtō, courtesy Galerie Écho 119, Paris; Shiga Lieko, Okasan no yasashii te (Mother’s gentle hands), 2009; from the series Rasen kaigan (Spiral coast), courtesy the artist; Okabe Momo, Untitled, from Ilmatar, 2020, courtesy the artist.

I’m So Happy You Are Here is organized by Aperture in collaboration with the Rencontres d’Arles, with support from Kering | Women In Motion, Ishibashi Foundation, Anne Levy Charitable Trust, and 1970 Japan World’s Exposition Memorial Fund. We wish to thank Sato Masako, Contact, Tokyo who oversaw production of the show in Japan.

Installation shots: Rencontres d’Arles 2024. Photos by Aurore Valade