Shadai Gallery

Even if it Changes What We See through This Window
Yoshida Shiho Photography Exhibition

Friday, November 10, 2023 – Wednesday, January 31, 2024

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Tokyo Polytechnic University, the Shadai Gallery will host an exhibition of the work of photographer and University graduate Yoshida Shiho.

In 2014, as a 4th-year student at the University, Yoshida Shiho made a stunning debut by winning the grand prize at the 11th 1_WALL Photography exhibition, which has spawned numerous well-known photographers. In 2017, her work was a finalist at the 11th Shiseido Art Egg, a contemporary art contest that rarely selects photography. Since then, she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions here and abroad, received invitations to photography festivals, and in 2022 was awarded the 46th Kimura Ihei Award, one of Japan’s most prestigious photography prizes. She has become a leading young figure in both the photography and art worlds.

Yoshida’s work features methods that combine analog and digital processes. She is also adept at installations that make the exhibition space part of the art work. For one of her leading works, Survey: Mountains, she looked for shooting locations on the internet and photographed the maps and aerial photographs she found in the process. Taking the photographs in hand, she headed to the actual location. Based on her feelings and sensations when she stood on site, she used various methods to combine the landscape before her with the photographs she brought. Finally she created landscapes that do not actually exist but can only be produced through the combination of analog and digital processes.

Even if it Changes What We See through This Window is a new work that takes “resolution” as its key word. Resolution is the density that comprises an image, with higher density producing higher quality images. Recently people who have clear understanding or thinking about things are said to have “high resolution.” All equipment is developed to attain the highest resolution, and many people desire this. But in an all-digital world, many young people respond to the special feel of film photography, and they have taken to intentionally using old low-resolution compact cameras. There are many who feel a certain discomfort with high-resolution images, or conversely feel affection for images of lower resolution.

This work involves first making an image with a high-resolution digital camera, then enlarging that image as a print several meters in size. This is then photographed using types of cameras with a variety of resolutions. The cameras ranged from a large-body camera that uses 8×10 sheet film, and a Quick Snap disposable film camera, to a compact digital camera produced in 2005. Even though they are photographs of the same image, the results produced by the different cameras vary greatly. Depending on the camera, the window that is the viewfinder differs, and what we see through it changes. Yoshida believes that each has its own personality and appeal.

This exhibition is centered on Even if it Changes What We See through This Window, and it will also include other representative works, including Survey: Mountains. This the first exhibition to include new work since she won the Kimura Ihei Award.

Yoshida Shiho (1992–)

Born in Chiba Prefecture. Base of activities is the Tokyo metropolis. Graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University in 2015. In 2022 she was awarded the 46th Kimura Ihei Award.

Selected exhibitions include Memories Penetrate the Ground and Permeate the Wind: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol. 18 (Tokyo Museum of Photographic Art, 2021); Azamino Photo Annual: What We See When We Pause (Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, 2021); TOKAS—Emerging 2020 (Tokyo Arts and Space, 2020); and Quarry: The Story of a Stone (Yumiko Chiba Associates, 2018).

Awards include the grand prize at the 11th 1_WALL Photography exhibition (2014); finalist in 11th Shiseido Art Egg contest (2017), and finalist in the Prix Pictet Japan Award 2017.