My Journey (Ryojin)

Tamiko NISHIMURA

Not a signed copy

My Journey
Tamiko Nishimura

“I have always taken snapshots with my camera whether I am walking, on trains, buses or boats. It is a stance that has never changed in the past several decades.” — Tamiko Nishimura

The photobook “My Journey” accompanies the Zen Foto exhibition in Tokyo of the same name (May 11 - June 16, 2018).
The images, many of them never before published, stem from the years between 1968 (when Nishimura first began photographing) and the 1980s and show sceneries and people that caught Nishimura’s eye street performers in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, fishing boats, close-ups of a child staring out of a train window, vibrant captures of streets in her neighborhood.

“Ryojin” was selected from approximately 1,500 images taken between 1968 to 1980s. During
the process, I felt as if the space and time I have lived through were rising again around me, like a haze.” — Tamiko Nishimura

Book Size
219 x 250 x 13 mm
Pages
120 pages, 60 images
Binding
Softcover
Publication Date
2018
Limited Edition
500

Artist Profile

Tamiko NISHIMURA

Born in 1948 in Tokyo, Nishimura graduated from Tokyo Photography College (current Tokyo Visual Arts) in 1969. Her graduation work was a photography series of Jōkyō Gekijo (Situation Theatre), forefront of the underground theatre movement led by Jūrō Kara. After her graduation, she met Daido Moriyama, Kōji Taki and Takuma Nakahira, three highly influential members of the Provoke movement. She assisted them in the darkroom from time to time up between 1969 and 1970, while she continued her personal shooting on her travels. Later in 1973, Nishimura made her debut through the first publication “Shikishima” published by Tokyo Photography College, showcasing her photographs taken from 1969 to 1972 on her journeys around Japan including Hokkaidō, Tōhoku, Hokuriku, Kantō, Kansai and Chūgoku regions. She also began to travel to Southeastern Asia and Europe in the 1980s. Nishimura’s language of expression is poetic, spiritual and deeply personal. Looking back on her career, Nishimura describes it as a sequence of journeys, and she continued photographing with her nomadic lifestyle. Her photography, revealing what is beyond a journey, is a manifold portrait of life wherever she encounters.

Her main publications are “Shikishima” (Tokyo Photography College, 1973. Reprinted by Zen Foto Gallery in 2014), “vent calmoso” (Sokyu-sha, 2005), “Existence 1968-69” (graficamag, 2011), “Eternal Chase” (graficamag, 2012), “Kittenish...” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “My Journey” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2018) and “Voyage” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2019), “My Journey II. 1968–1989“ (Zen Foto Gallery, 2019), and “My Journey III. 1993-2022“ (Zen Foto Gallery, 2022). Her works are included in the collection of M+ museum (Hong Kong).

Gallery Exhibitions