Japan Exposures photo showcase
Kazuyasu Matsui was born in 1973, and graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography. He has been exhibiting his work since 2007, and last year he was selected by photographer Katsumi Omori as one of his five Honorable Mention selectees of the “New Cosmos of Photography†competition sponsored by Canon Camera for his Paradise☆INGA series, from which the above photo comes.
Please also see our extended gallery of this series.
Emi Fukuyama was born in Saga Prefecture in 1981, and graduated from Tokyo Visual Arts School in 2006. Since 2008 she ha been a member of Totem Pole Photo Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Fukuyama’s first photobook, The Moon, Following Me, from which the above photo comes, was published in December by Tosei-sha.
More work from The Moon, Following Me can be seen in a special extended Japan Exposures gallery, and we are also publishing concurrently a review of the photobook.
Yu Kusanagi was born in Akita Prefecture in 1982, and graduated from the Tohoku University of Art and Design in 2007. He has been exhibiting his photography since 2003, picking up several awards including one from Konica Minolta in 2003. Most recently, in the Fall of 2010 Kusanagi’s Snow series, from which the above photo comes, was an Honorable Mention selection by photographer Mika Ninagawa for the annual Canon Cosmos of Photography competition.
More work from Snow can be seen in a special extended Japan Exposures gallery.
Nobuto Osakabe was born in 1984 in Shizuoka Prefecture. In 2003 he entered Tokyo Polytechnic University, graduating in 2007 and winning the university’s Fox Talbot Award in 2006. Since finishing his education Osakabe has been working as a commercial photographer while pursuing his own personal work, with exhibitions at Nikon Salon in 2007 and Konica Minolta Gallery in 2009. This autumn, Osakabe’s Holiday Making series, from which the above photo comes, was an Honorable Mention selection by photography critic Minoru Shimizu for the annual Canon Cosmos of Photography competition.
More work from Holiday Making can be seen in a special extended Japan Exposures gallery.
Kazuyoshi Usui is a Tokyo-based photographer born in 1975, and once studied under Eikoh Hosoe at Tokyo Polytechnic University. He makes his living as a commercial photographer. In his personal work he’s interested in exploring the borders between lies and truth, particularly in a cinematic way. In 2006 he published “Macaroni Christian”, and is currently at work on a series entitled “Bullet Boy”, of which the above photograph is part of.
Manabu Someya was born in 1964 in Chiba prefecture. He graduated from Nihon University College of Art majoring in photography. He is concentrating his view on Asia and Okinawa and in his work he attempts a perspective on life and death.
Please see our review of Nirai, Someya’s photo book published by Tosei-sha, as well as an extended gallery drawn from the series.
Signed copies of Nirai are available for purchase in the Japan Exposures Bookstore.
Mitsuru Fujita was born in Tokyo in 1934. He quit a job in advertising to become a freelance photographer in 1961, eventually setting up his own commercial photo agency called Fujitaman in 1966 which he would run for over 40 years. During this time he also taught photography part time at Tokyo College of Photography and at Musashino Art University. Fujita closed Fujitaman in 2007 to concentrate on his personal work.
The above image, taken in 2006 in Nara Prefecture, is from Fujita’s body of 11 x 14 landscape work shot mostly between 2000 and 2009, and collected in Zaisyo, a handsome book published earlier this year.
Please also see our book review of Zaisyo, as well as an extended gallery of images from the series. Signed copies of the book itself are available in the Japan Exposures Bookstore.
