Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now

Stolid exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery looking at Japanese women photographers since the 1950s.

The show was well presented under the themes of pioneers, elevating the day, self, gender and society and experiments but it was large, taking over all three floors of their galleries. I liked that it was shown in groups by individual photographers with good information boards including quotes by the artists.

However the work lacked a sense of lightness and it all felt quite serious and worthy. I met a friend after and told her where I'd been and as she said "That's a bit niche".

I think the “Elevating the Everyday” section was my favourite with street and diary photography. I loved Ushioda Tokuko's pictures of the inside and outside of her fridge as a commentary on her life. I was intrigued by Yanagi Miwa's staged pictures commenting on Japanese elevator girls (although I thought they were air hostesses from the image). The one shown here was used to surround the walls of the lift and it had a surreal effect to stand amongst them.

I think by favourite work was Komatsu Hiroko's installation of photographs of industrial buildings. The quote said "A single photograph is not enough to make sense".  

Closed 27 September 2026

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