Shizuka Yokomizo


Shizuka Yokomizo is a Japanese photographer and installation artist.
Originally from Tokyo, Japan, she currently lives and works in London.

Biography

Yokomizo studied philosophy at Chuo University in Tokyo from 1985 to 1989. The same year, she moved to the United Kingdom to study fine arts at Chelsea College of Art and Design. After earning her degree, she continued to study the arts at Goldsmiths University of London from 1993 to 1995. Much of her photography utilizes chromogenic print. Her work has been displayed throughout the United States, Europe, South Korea, and Japan.
Her work in recent years has been included in At The Window ; The Other Portrait ; and Talent Show. She took part in Exposed, which toured the Tate Modern in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. She also participated in Roppongi Crossing 2010 at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

Artistic Practice

The conditions under which Yokomizo captures the image are essential to her work—she states, “any people will call me a photographer, but I don’t think of myself as one...“I chose the medium of photography because it allowed me to visualize my perspective and I wanted to confirm my existence and verify the state of my being in those places.”
Exploring “the gap between self and other; the space that exists between ‘me’ and ‘you,’" Yokomizo's work is often a "contrast to the merciless ‘stare’ of documentary photography," seeking to "reproduce a strong sense of reciprocity, and an awareness of one’s own presence in relation to another.” Yokomizo initiated her series Stranger in an attempt to further investigate these relationships, leaving anonymous letters in the mailboxes of first-floor apartments around England. An excerpt from the letter reads,

“I would like to take a photograph of you standing in your front room from the street in the evening. A camera will be set outside the window on the street. If you do not mind being photographed, please stand in the room and look into the camera through the window for 10 minutes… I will NOT knock on your door to meet you. We will remain strangers to each other.”


Her work often addresses ideas of “distance and intimacy, anonymity and exposure, collaboration and control, surveillance and exhibitionism,” focusing on the "moment of exchange with the subject."

Notable Works

Her work is held in the following public collections:
Solo Exhibitions
A collection of her photos, titled Distance, was published in 2004. "Distance" was Yokomizo's first solo exhibition in a public-funded space in the UK. It traveled from Exeter to Cardiff and Sheffield.
Distance was published in conjunction with the Spacex touring exhibition, 'Shizuka Yokomizo: Distance', curated by Tom Trevor and organized in collaboration with The Approach.