Even though there is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described, the world that we live in is hardly a factual affair. Emotions, perceptions and an infinite number of combinations between the two make our lives much more of a mystery than we would like to believe. Certain is nothing. What was a given yesterday is full of vague and potential eventualities... 

Profile by John Sypal for Japan Exposures. Aya Fujioka’s photos are not those which espouse a refinement or a celebration of reality. The term “investigation” is inappropriate when attempting to relate them to any sort of exploration of the World. She is one of the few photographers whose pictures are perhaps best seen as evidence... 

The medium of photography was invented out of our strong desire to create a likeness of our reality — and ourselves in it. We then learned that the camera would see what our eyes never could — time being brought to a standstill. However, in actuality during the early days of the medium the relationship of photography and time was quite the... 

Nipporini is the pseudonym of the well-known commercial photographer Takahiro Wada, and a mash-up of the photographer’s hometown of Nippori in Tokyo, and the famed film director Federico Fellini. Wada’s “Nippori Guidebook” project and “Nipporini” persona as it were are a homage to his hometown, even as it also seems... 

Japan Exposures is pleased to present the work of Shinji Abe, who at 26 is one of the youngest — if not the youngest — photographers we’ve featured. It may come as something of a surprise to readers of this website, but Abe is one of a rather sizable group of young photographers who not only embrace film, the darkroom, and the vagaries... 

Introduced by Silas Dominey for Japan Exposures. I first saw Tomoyuki Sakaguchi’s images of suburban Tokyo when I was in my third year of a photography BA and something of a transparency film snob. Everything had to be film, and the only purpose of digital was quick and dirty snapshots. Sakaguchi’s work was the catalyst that suddenly pointed... 

Manabu Yamanaka’s Gyahtei, published earlier this Fall, brings together Yamanaka’s six major series focusing on societal outcasts, including street children, homeless, the physically deformed, and the elderly. Working in a similar vein for over 25 years, each series might take up to four to five years to complete. Yamanaka doesn’t... 

Japan Exposures is pleased to present the work of Yasuhiro Ogawa, who this year received along with Shintaro Sato the prestigious Newcomer’s Award from the Photographic Society of Japan. Ogawa was born in Kanagawa in 1968 and, influenced by the work of Sebastiao Salgado, took up photography when he was 24. His book, Slowly Down the River, was... 

Japan Exposures is pleased to present the work of Haruto Hoshi, born 1970 in Kanagawa and educated at Contemporary Photography Research Institute. Hoshi’s intense and at times uncomfortable images show life in the large Japanese cities in a captivating and arresting style. He represented by the Third District Gallery Tokyo. We are also featuring... 

Japan Exposures is pleased to present the work of Masahiro Kodaira, born and raised in Tokyo and educated at Tokyo Zokei University. Kodaira was an informal student of famed avant-garde photographer Kiyoji Otsuji, and Otsuji’s influence is clear to see in the following images. Presented here are five images each from Kodaira’s two major...