Manabu Yamanaka was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1959, and moved to Tokyo when he was 23 to pursue a career in commercial photography. Amidst the dizzying frenzy of the “bubble” years, in 1989 Yamanaka released Arakan, portraits of Tokyo homeless, which would mark the first of a career-spanning, 25-plus year body of portraits and still lives focusing on subjects outside the margins of society, including the physically deformed, street children, and the very elderly. It is from this last series of nude portraits of women in their 90s that our Cover Photo comes.

Though relatively unknown in his native Japan, Yamanaka has been exhibited widely in America and Europe, and is represented by Stefan Stux Gallery in New York.

Please also see our special gallery of Yamanaka’s work.