Untitled, 1997

Nomura Sakiko (born in Shimonoseki, Japan, 1967) developed an interest in photography when she was eighteen. She started shooting nudes during her college years at Kyushu Sangyo University, and, shortly after graduating in 1991, became an apprentice of Araki Nobuyoshi. Following her first solo exhibition in 1993, Nomura’s work was included in several critically acclaimed group and solo exhibitions in Japan, elsewhere in Asia, and in Europe. She is best known for her intimate portraits, particularly of men, and for her juxtapositions of sensual scenes with cityscapes, seascapes, and still lifes. Nomura works in black and white and in color, using various formats, including Polaroids that she presents as a series, each frame offering a mini fiction. A prolific and talented photobook maker, Nomura has published more than twenty volumes over the past three decades, beginning with her first book, Hadaka no heya (Naked room) in 1994. As she explains: “The book is a fundamental part. Someone once told me that he reads my book in bed, which made me feel very excited. The book then becomes the secret relationship I have with my audience. The audience and I become accomplices and can share secret stories.”