Quick Chats: Yokouchi Kyoko

By | October 9, 2018

At the recent Taiwan Photo Fair, in ShinKong Mitsukoshi, Xinyi Place A9, 9F Exhibition Center, Taipei City, I managed to get 20 minutes to chat with the photographer, Yokouchi Kyoko, about her work, her art and her inspirations. In 2018, she was exhibiting some fine art photography from her native Chiba in Japan. The light, the leaves and the ocean all left an indelible mark on my imagination, esp. the ocean view of the seagull flying. I could imagine a scene like that in the West Coast of Scotland!

Turns out she had actually been to the UK: Edinburgh and Brighton! And she’s spent a lot of time speaking and learning English! So it was a real blessing for me to have her enthusiastically describe her experiences of photography in a language I could understand! She was showing me some of her fine art, but it turns out that this a relatively recent innovation. Check out some selected images from her 2016 book.

In 2009, however, she was shooting B&W film in a boxing ring. Of course, we all know that Japan is famous for Sumo… I’d never heard of boxing being a thing there… But the images from the ring, the dressing rooms, the people, the victories/despairs … they just grabbed me and pummelled me around the head for a good few minutes!

So I left with a copy of her book In The Box, a wonderful experience, and a hope that I will be able to catch up with her recent work in 2019! If you have a chance, check out her work on her blog. It’s not a selling site, but you’ll get a feel for her art there.

If you’re able to read Japanese or don’t mind the script, enjoy a few more shots of her work with boxers here.