orange elephant

Hideka TONOMURA

"I have been waiting.

For a beautiful tomorrow"

-Hideka Tonomura, orange elephant

Published by Zen Foto Gallery in 2015, orange elephant marks the most recent publication by the Tokyo based photographer since her debut photobook Haha Love (2008) and the subsequent They called me Yukari (2013). Within Tonomura's images portray the intimacies found within love, delicately expressing the fragilities of individual emotions and occurrences. Here love, and the many binaries of illusions and disillusions, happiness and depression and lastly hope are all expressed revealing the very intimacies and multiplicities which define life and its experiences within Tonomura's orange elephant.

Book Size
265 x 181 mm
Pages
72 pages, 44 images
Binding
Hardcover
Publication Date
2015
Limited Edition
700

Artist Profile

Hideka TONOMURA

Born in 1979, Hideka Tonomura graduated from the Broadcasting and Filmmaking Department of Osaka Visual Arts School and began photography in 2002. She published her first photobook “Mama Love” in 2008 with Akaaka Art Publishing, revealing her deepest pain and her family’s dark, hidden secrets, which made an unforgettable impression on the public. In 2013 she published “They Called Me Yukari” with Zen Foto Gallery, documenting the life and people around her when she worked as a hostess in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. Her other publications include “Orange Elephant” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “cheki” (Morel Books, 2018), “die of love” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2018), “SHINING WOMAN #cancerbeauty” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2020), “mama 恋 love” [New Edition] 
(Zen Foto Gallery, 2021), “Toxic” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2022) and “They Called Me Yukari [New Edition] (Zen Foto Gallery, 2023).

Actively presenting her work in and out of Japan, she participated in the group exhibitions 
“Shikijo: Eroticism in Japanese Photography”, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong (2016); 
Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery, London (2018); “10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers”, Kyotographie, Kyoto (2022), “Love Songs”, La MEP – La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2022), and the Arles International Photography Festival Associate Programme “Transcendence” (2024).

Tonomura launched the “SHINING WOMAN PROJECT” in 2019, a portrait project dedicated to women fighting cancer. In 2022, her debut work “Mama Love” was collected by the MEP – La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris.

Gallery Exhibitions