2023 — Japan
About this series
Dusk symbolizes the transition from day into night, from conscious to unconscious, from light to darkness, or from life to death. Things become invisible when it gets dark, and instead, what is normally invisible becomes visible. The ancient Japanese culture also believed that dusk is the time when dark creatures appear. The images of “At Dusk” depict an inner reality of a person who has experienced change in her life, moving from one culture to another.
Those enigmatic photographs, mostly taken just after sunset, remind me of my childhood home. Obscurity is the key to creating images beyond time and distance, since it creates images without realistic details. There is an inner urgency to visualize intimate views of the past. People may be able to recapture something essential they left behind years ago through images. During my nightly walks through my neighborhood, I often captured images of the peripheral corners of a city with ordinary domestic animals. In showing something fundamental beyond time and space, the images provide some psychological comfort.
Photographer: Miyuki Okuyama
Nationality: Japanese
Based in: Netherlands
Website: www.miyukiokuyama.com
Instagram: @miyuki_okuyama_photography
Education
M.A., Studio art, The University of Alabama (2000-2002)
B.A., Studio art, The University of Alabama (1996-1999)
Exhibtions (selected)
2024: Kunstinitiatief De Nieuwe Gang (duo with Maan Limburg)
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Gallery, London (solo)
2023: OMNEFEST festival, book presentation, Castelfranco Veneto, Italy
“Tales of Absence,” Refectiehuis, Utrecht (trio, with Nishiko and Maan Limburg)
Africa Foto Fest, Museum MuCAT, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
2022: Salon der Künstler, Museum Kurhaus Kleve
Fotografia Europea + Skinnerboox Book Award presentation, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Jakarta International Photo Festival, Indonesia
2021: “Stateless: war displaced Filipino Japanese” Tokyo
2020: “Nightfall” Museum Arnhem
“Reimagining War” Tokyo, Osaka
Award (recent)
2022: Winner, Fotografia Europe + Skinnerboox BOOK AWARD at FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, Italy
2019: Swiss Photo Three, Lugano, Winner
2018: Breda International Photo Festival, 2nd Prize Best Portfolio
PHotoESPAÑA Best Photobook, shortlisted
Kunst.nl Photography Award, nomination
2016: Self publish Riga, shortlisted
Photobook Bristol, shortlisted
DOCfield Dummy Award, Barcelona, shortlisted
LUMA Rencontrs Dummy Book Award Arles, shortlisted
***Cortona on the Move Photobook Review, winner, Cortona, Italy
SCAN Tarragota, shortlisted
Randez Vous-Image, Shortlisted (Strasbourg)