Image: The Photographers' Gallery, An Un.titled Site
The Photographers’ Gallery will present ‘Japanese photography reconsidered: Women in focus’, a six-week online course examining the women photographers who have shaped Japanese photography. Led by curator and art historian Dr Lena Fritsch, the course will take place on Wednesday evenings from 16 September to 21 October 2026, with weekly sessions held on Zoom from 6.30pm to 8pm British Summer Time. The final session will run until 8.30pm.
The programme is organised in connection with the London exhibition ‘Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now’, which is on view at The Photographers’ Gallery until 27 September. The exhibition brings together more than 200 photographs, videos, installations and rare photobooks by 27 artists working from the 1950s to the present. Its focus is the contribution of women to a photographic history that has often been presented through the work of male artists.
The course will begin with an overview of Japanese photography since 1945, including influential trends, movements and groups such as VIVO and Provoke. Later sessions will focus on individual artists and place their practices within the histories and theories of photography, as well as Japan’s wider social and political histories. Each meeting will combine lectures, close analysis, questions and group discussion, with presentations and other resources made available online where possible.
The second session, on 23 September, will examine ISHIUCHI Miyako, whose career spans photographic series from the 1970s to the present. ISHIKAWA Mao will be the focus on 30 September, with attention to her personal portrayals of life in Okinawa, the US military presence and marginalised communities. On 7 October, the course turns to NISHIMURA Tamiko’s photographs of everyday life in post-war Japan and her travels, a body of work the organisers describe as underappreciated in Japan and internationally.
The 14 October session pairs YANAGI Miwa and SAWADA Tomoko under the theme ‘Staging Identity’. It considers Yanagi’s digitally manipulated photographic series, many of which focus on women, alongside Sawada’s conceptual self-portraits addressing female identity, gender roles and social conformity. The final class, ‘Beyond Girls Photography’, brings together NINAGAWA Mika, Hiromix and NAGASHIMA Yurie, three artists who shared the 2001 Kimura Ihei Photography Award. The session addresses the late-1990s ‘girls photography’ movement, in which young women claimed greater ownership of their bodies and narratives.
Fritsch is an independent curator and writer specialising in Japanese photography. She is the author of ‘Ravens & Red Lipstick: Japanese Photography since 1945’ and has published monographs on Ishiuchi Miyako and Morimura Yasumasa. Her curatorial projects include ‘Tokyo: Art & Photography’ at the Ashmolean Museum and the 2022 Roppongi Crossing Triennial of contemporary Japanese art at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.
The course is open to anyone aged 18 or over with an interest in photography, visual culture, Japanese art and society; no prior knowledge is required. Fees are £210, or £190 for members and concessions. The gallery is also offering a number of partial bursaries covering half the course fee, awarded on a first-come basis.
