'Yokosuka was like a deeply haunting feeling of brutality, and onto hundreds of pure white photographic paper, I spewed it out in deep blacks.'
—Ishiuchi Miyako
Early prints of Yokosuka Story are exceedingly rare.
In her first major project Yokosuka Story, Ishiuchi Miyako (b. 1947) presents a fictional Yokosuka rendered in black and white with a narrative woven with memories, experiences and histories. Yokosuka, the site of the largest U.S. naval base overseas, is her hometown where she had lived for 13 years from the age of six. Dark, grainy and off kilter, her photographs of this port city are quietly unsettling. The present work, showing derelict buildings, reflect her dark memories of growing up in the turbulent base town.
One of Japan’s leading artists, Ishiuchi represented Japan at the 2005 Venice Biennale and is a multiple award winner, including the 4th Kimura Ihei Award (1979), Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon (2013) and the Hasselblad Award (2014). Her work has been exhibited internationally since 1979 and recent museum retrospectives include Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2015-16) and Ishiuchi Miyako: Grain and Image at the Yokohama Museum of Art (2017-18). Her work is held in many prominent institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Tate Modern, London.
1977 Gelatin silver print. Image: 23.9 x 28.8 cm (9 3/8 x 11 3/8 in.) Sheet: 25.7 x 31 cm (10 1/8 x 12 1/4 in.) Signed in rōmaji, titled in Japanese and dated in ink on the verso.
Please note that the artist’s name appears in Japanese order with the surname before the forename.