JFLA Lecture Series 23

Floating in the Moment: Artist Talk with photographer Mikiko Hara

Mikiko Hara Japanese, born 1967
Untitled (Primary Speaking), 1999 Chromogenic print
© Mikiko Hara

Date:
Thursday, October 9, 7PM

Venue:
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
(5700 Wilshire Blvd. # 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)

Admission: Free

Street parking is available near JFLA. Click Here for Parking info
(NO PARKING VALIDATIONS PROVIDED)

Mikiko Hara's photo series, currently being exhibited at The Getty Center in a photo exhibition including works from 4 modern Japanese photographers titled In Focus: Tokyo captures moments in which female subjects seem to be deep in thought, almost as if they're daydreaming, despite the hustle and bustle of the city around them. Her photography has a dream-like quality and evokes a unique feeling of wonder in those who view it.

Through this lecture series, we have the unique opportunity to invite Mikiko to talk about her work and artistic philosophy during her visit to Los Angeles as an artist in residence at The Getty Center. She will talk about her photography that is shot using an old-fashioned 6 x 6 camera to create her distinctive "snapshot style" which she adopted and has consistently used since early on in her career. This lecture will also cover her photo series at In Focus: Tokyo and the themes it contains.

*Please note this lecture will be in Japanese with English interpretation.

Mikiko Hara

Born in 1967 in Toyama Prefecture, Mikiko graduated in 1990 from Keio University's Faculty of Literature where she majored in Aesthetic and Science of Arts.  In 1994, she graduated from Tokyo College of Photography where she actively pursued photography. She continued studying at Tokyo College of Photography as a research student and graduated in 1996. During the same year she had her first solo exhibition titled "Is As It," which was held in Tokyo. Since then, her works have been shown at numerous exhibitions in Japan and abroad. In 2007, her first solo exhibition outside of Japan was held at Cohen Amador Gallery in New York.
Based in Kawasaki city near Tokyo, Mikiko invariably focusses her photography on familiar scenes of everyday life — passengers on trains, families out and about, etc. — and captures whatever she happens to come across in her unique, understated style. Her approach to photography comes from her early experiences of using an old-fashioned, easy-to-carry, 6 x 6 camera. Her photography style expands upon the traditional concept of snapshot photography and provides viewers with an uncanny "feeling of floating." For her museum exhibitions in Japan, she has experimented with arranging various sizes of her prints in unconventional spaces to create unique installations. In 2005, she published a collection of her photographs titled "Hysteric 13: Hara Mikiko" (Hysteric Glamour). Her works are in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum, LA, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, and elsewhere. In autumn of 2014, her new book "These are Days" will be published by Osiris, Tokyo.