“I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now,” a new book published by Aperture, features wide-ranging portfolios by 25 photographers. As Pauline Vermare, a co-editor of the book, writes in her introductory essay, the primary focus of the women showcased in the book “has been, and remains, to find the means to be independent and represent their own experiences and views of the world.” Among the works included are those by the 77-year-old photographer Miyako Ishiuchi, who co-founded a photography magazine, main, in 1996. The book contains photos from “Yokosuka Story,” a 1970s series focusing on her hometown, the location of a major U.S. Navy base, and a still-life of a lipstick, part of her “Mother’s” (2000-2005) series, for which she photographed her deceased mother’s possessions. One of the youngest photographers in the book, Momo Okabe, 43, trains her lens on her own body and those of her friends, capturing both everyday experiences and life-changing events such as gender-affirming surgery and pregnancy. From photojournalism to works of collage, the book, as its introduction states, “lays the groundwork for understanding the enormity of what has been overlooked.” “I’m So Happy You Are Here” is out on Sept. 17, $75, aperture.org.
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