Japanese Photography

Latest Stories

Mariko Mori’s Anime-Inspired Critique of Gender in Japan

In the 1990s, the photographer spoofed corporate culture through performances staged in locations around Tokyo.

How Kishin Shinoyama Found Fame and Controversy

The Japanese photographer, who died in January 2024 at the age of eighty-three, developed a cult following for his images of celebrities and nudes.

Rediscovering Hisae Imai’s Otherworldly Vision

Once a darling of Tokyo’s avant-garde and fashion scenes in the 1960s, Imai took an unexpected turn after a tragic accident.

Japan’s Unparalleled History of Photography in Print

An expansive new book shows how the magazine format was a major, genre-defining space for Japanese photographers.

Eikoh Hosoe’s Mythic Worlds

In his collaborations with influential literary figures and performers, Hosoe created surreal scenes that invoke the fantastic.

A Festival in Kyoto Dazzles with Photography and Architecture

Kyotographie is distinct among photo festivals for its clever site-specific exhibitions in many of the city’s stunning locations.

The Japanese Photographers Who Build Experimental Artist Books

Osamu Kanemura and Hiroko Komatsu speak about photographing Tokyo, the virtues of the Plaubel Makina camera, and why a single picture is never enough.

Why Daido Moriyama’s Radical Vision Is Misunderstood

A major exhibition in São Paulo celebrates the process behind the Japanese photographer’s trailblazing work.

The Luminous Openness of Rinko Kawauchi’s Photographs

In her images of keenly observed gestures and details, Kawauchi reveals the mysterious and beautiful realm at the edge of the everyday world.

A Japanese Photographer’s Bittersweet Archive of His Late Wife

Since 1989, Seiichi Furuya has revisited his intimately quotidian images of his wife in a series of photobooks that affirm photography’s potential to heal, remember, and reimagine a life.

Kikuji Kawada on the Traumas of History and the Skies above Japan

In a conversation with Ryuichi Kaneko, the celebrated photographer discusses the arc of his career and the making of the iconic 1965 photobook The Map.

Daido Moriyama on the Unending Newness of Photographs

The legendary artist speaks about why photography never reaches a state of completion.

How Yurie Nagashima’s Self-Portraits Interrogate the Male Gaze

In her latest photobook, the Japanese photographer discusses self-portraiture as a radical feminist gesture.

Minimal, Messy, or Melancholic?

The many faces of “home” in Japanese photography.

Father Figure

Masahisa Fukase transformed the ritual of the family portrait into a source of play—and a memento mori.

A Japanese Photographer’s Encounters with Natural Disasters

Eight years after a devastating tsunami, Lieko Shiga investigates Japan’s haunted landscapes.

A Japanese Photographer’s Gleefully Chaotic Family Life

At home in Japan, Motoyuki Daifu captures his family with gleeful candor.

Can a Feminist Embrace Araki?

At the Museum of Sex, a new look at the prolific—and provocative—Japanese photographer.
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Aperture 254

This spring, Aperture presents “Counter Histories,” an issue produced in collaboration with Magnum Foundation and informed by their ongoing Counter Histories grant initiative, featuring artists from around the world who tell new stories about how the past informs the present.