The International Center of Photography, New York. Photo by Aiko Austin

This fall, the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York is presenting I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now, a landmark exhibition bringing together the work of Japanese women photographers across generations. On view through January 11, 2027, the show offers a long-overdue examination of the contributions women have made to Japanese photography.

Curated by Lesley A. Martin, Mariko Takeuchi and Pauline Vermare, the exhibition spans more than seven decades of photographic practice, tracing Japan’s profound postwar transformations, from reconstruction and rapid economic growth to the rise of consumer culture. Through their work, these women photographers documented and interpreted a changing society while challenging conventions and expanding the possibilities of the medium.

The exhibition grew out of the acclaimed photobook, published by Aperture in 2024. First presented at Les Rencontres d’Arles that year, it subsequently traveled to The Hague, Frankfurt, Tokyo and London before arriving in New York for its first presentation in the United States.

Among the earliest pioneers of Japanese women’s photography was Eiko Yamazawa. In 1926, at the age of 27, she traveled alone aboard a cargo ship to the United States to study painting in San Francisco. Her later photographic work explored bold abstractions of color, form and composition.

©Eiko Yamazawa, What I Am Doing No. 77, 1986. Courtesy of Third Gallery Aya, Osaka, and Aperture

Working in the postwar decades, Miyako Ishiuchi turned her lens toward memory, the body and the traces of personal history, themes that continue to define her deeply intimate photographs. Representing a later generation, Rinko Kawauchi brings a poetic sensibility to seemingly ordinary moments, finding beauty and mystery in the fleeting details of everyday life.

©Miyako Ishiuchi, Mother’s #39, 2002. Courtesy of Third Gallery Aya, Osaka, and Aperture

©Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, 2004, from the series the eyes, the ears

“Each photographer is so powerful and so different,” said co-curator Mariko Takeuchi during the press preview.

During the exhibition’s opening weekend at ICP, three of the participating photographers, Yurie Nagashima, Tomoko Sawada and Yuki Tawada, took part in an artist talk to discuss their intergenerational practices. Nagashima uses self-portraiture to challenge traditional representations of women, drawing on personal experiences of family and motherhood. She explains in the exhibition’s wall text:

“The self-portrait means that you can take on both roles, as a model and as a photographer. When you have a camera on a tripod, you have the space in front of the camera and also the space behind the camera. It’s very symbolic. It’s a way of taking action against the historical roles of the male and female in photography.”

©Yurie Nagashima, Full-figured, yet not full-term, 2001

©Tomoko Sawada, Untitled #201

©Yuki Tawada, The Waves Unravel at Night 1_2 and The Waves Unravel at Night 5_1, 2017. Photo by Aiko Austin

Elsewhere in the exhibition, Sakiko Nomura’s atmospheric black-and-white portraits explore intimacy and the human body. Hiroko Komatsu takes a more conceptual approach, presenting photographs in immersive installations that examine industrial landscapes and contemporary society. Mao Ishikawa’s documentary work examines life in Okinawa and the complex realities surrounding the American military presence.

©Sakiko Nomura. Untitled, 1997; from the series Hiroki. Courtesy of Aperture.

©Hiroko Komatsu, Propagation Imitator, 2024. Photo by Aiko Austin

©Mao Ishikawa, Untitled, from the series Akabanaa (Red Flower), 1975–77. Courtesy of Nap Gallery, Tokyo, and Aperture

Beyond bringing recognition to individual artists, I’m So Happy You Are Here invites a broader reconsideration of Japanese photographic history. The works presented here are an integral part of that history, revealing the independent and often unconventional approaches through which women have helped shape the medium. As a Japanese woman photographer myself, I found it particularly meaningful to see so many generations of artists and their diverse practices brought together here in New York.

Mariko Takeuchi, Lesley A. Martin and Pauline Vermare at The International Center of Photography, New York. Photo by Aiko Austin

I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now
International Center of Photography
84 Ludlow Street, New York
October 15, 2026 – January 11, 2027

Curated by Lesley A. Martin, Executive Director of Printed Matter, Mariko Takeuchi, photography critic, curator and professor at Kyoto University of the Arts and Pauline Vermare, Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum.

Featured Artists: Aya Fujioka, Mikiko Hara, Hiromix, Mao Ishikawa, Miyako Ishiuchi, Mari Katayama, Rinko Kawauchi, Hiroko Komatsu, Michiko Kon, Yurie Nagashima, Asako Narahashi, Mika Ninagawa, Tamiko Nishimura, Rika Noguchi, Sakiko Nomura, Momo Okabe, Toshiko Okanoue, Yuki Onodera, Tomoko Sawada, Lieko Shiga, Kunié Sugiura, Nozomi Suzuki, Yuki Tawada, Toyoko Tokiwa, Tokuko Ushioda, Hitomi Watanabe, Eiko Yamazawa and Miwa Yanagi.

Exhibition Support: Organized by Aperture in collaboration with Les Rencontres d’Arles, with support from the Ishibashi Foundation, the Anne Levy Charitable Trust and the 1970 Japan World’s Exposition Memorial Fund.

Installation of I’m So Happy You are Here at The International Center of Photography, New York. Photo by Aiko Austin