I always produce my work to show what I am currently thinking.
Ever since its invention in the 19th century, photography has been used to document life. At the same time, it focuses on inviting audiences to a rather subjective world while trying to be taken seriously as an art form. Photography has always been considered a male-dominated profession, but luckily, things are changing. Scholars, writers, bloggers, photography students, and enthusiasts have been giving credit to the female pioneers of the field. Most were always standing and/or hiding in the shadows, oblivious to how much they could claim and accomplish. Arguably, the techniques, concepts, and themes female photographers use differ from those of male photographers. At a time when most women were convinced that their place was in the kitchen and certainly not in the dark room, some were struggling to surpass their male counterparts and work towards gaining respect and recognition for their work.
Tomoko Sawada (Japanese photographer and performance artist, 1977-) was born in Kobe and graduated in 1998 with a degree in Media Design, then later in 2000 with a degree in Photography from the Seian University of Art and Design in Otsu, Shiga. Some of her works of art include ID-400, OMIAI♡, Costume, Schoolgirls, Masquerade, and more.
Her work investigates human identity and especially gender roles and stereotypes in Japanese culture. Sawada uses photography and performance art techniques to explore ideas of identity, status, culture, individualism, and conformity through traditional and contemporary cultural methods of portraiture. Her photographs are each part of a themed photo series in which she makes use of makeup and costume to dramatically alter her identity, such that each photograph appears to represent a different individual or group of individuals, when all subjects are Sawada herself. Sawada uses commercial photographers, photo booths, and her own studio environment with digital photo editing to represent hundreds of different identities. Her use of costumes in her self-portraits draws inspiration from Cindy Sherman's work.
Tomoko's work also explores how assumptions about personality are largely driven by Japanese cultural responses to gender, job occupation, and other socio-cultural stereotypes. Sawada's earliest self-portrait photo series is Early Days, from 1995 to 1996, made while Sawada was in her teens. Subsequent photo series continue to explore varying methods of altering Sawada's outward appearance, then documenting these changes using single and group style photographic methods.
The Japanese contemporary feminist photographer and performance artist has been included in numerous group shows in Japan, Europe, and the US. Her first solo exhibition was in 1997 at Japan's Gallery Chat. In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award for Young Japanese Photographer as well as the International Center of Photography Infinity Award in the category of Young Photographer.
My works are mainly (not only) “self-portraiture” because it is the best way to explore my ideas and express my thinking. Self-portraiture can visualize and organize my ideas.
We will continue talking about female names that left their mark on photography and about contemporary female photographers who are still emerging. There are a lot of female photographers out there deserving of praise, and we can only hope to cover as many of them as we can. Please follow this space to find out more.
