Tokuko Ushioda

Tokuko Ushioda (潮田登久子, Ushioda Tokuko, b. 1940) is a Japanese photographer whose Bibliotecha series won the Domon Ken Award, the Photographic Society of Japan’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Higashikawa International Photo Festival's Domestic Photographer Award in 2018.

Ushioda has works in the collections of Smith College Museum of Art in Massachusetts; Mead Art Museum of Amherst College, Kyushu Sangyō University, Fukuoka, Japan; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Ken Domon Museum of Photography, Yamagata, Japan; and Higashikawa Town, Hokkaido, Japan.

Career Ushioda was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1940.

Ushioda is perhaps best known for her series Bibliotecha (Hon no keshiki, 本の景色), for which she photographed books as valid art objects in 1995. She published the photobook Bibliotecha in 2017, dividing the images into 26 chapters that show books beyond their presence as mere physical objects.

Ushioda is also known for her series ICE BOX (Reizōko, 冷蔵庫), in which she photographed the contents of various families' refrigerators.

Her series My Husband (Mai hazubando, マイハズバンド) "chronicles Ushioda’s family life and artistic growth" during the 1970s.

Publications

My Husband, Torch Press, 2022 BIBLIOTHECA, Genkishobou, 2017 My Teacher’s Atelier, Genkishobou 2017 Misuzu, Genkishobou, 2016 HATS, Parol, 2004 ICE BOX, Beebooks, 1996 Chinese People, Self-published, 1986

Awards

2019 Kuwasawa Special Award 2018 The 37th Domon Ken Award 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award, Photographic Society of Japan Awards 2018 Domestic Photographer Award, The 34th Higashikawa Awards

Exhibition History

Selected Solo Exhibitions Source: 1976 Hohoemi no tejo/Smile was handcuffed, Shinjuku Nikon Salon, Tokyo 1989 Seikatsu/LIFE, Film Round Gallery, Tokyo 1992 ICE BOX, Tokyo Design Center, Tokyo 1994 HATS, Gallery MOLE, Tokyo 1998 ICE BOX, Art Gallery Artium, Tokyo 1999 ICE BOX, Setagaya Lifestyle Design Center, Tokyo 2001 HATS, Contemporary Photo Gallery, Tokyo 2002 Seika/Sacred Song, Contemporary Photo Gallery, Tokyo 2003 BIBLIOTHECA, The 5th Library Fair at Tokyo International Forum 2003 BIBLIOTHECA, Contemporary Photo Gallery, Tokyo 2003 BIBLIOTHECA, Waseda University Library, Tokyo 2004 Bookmart, Contemporary Photo Gallery, Tokyo 2006 BIBLIOTHECA, Imbrie Hall Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo 2008 ICE BOX, Port Gallery T, Osaka 2009 ICE BOX, CAFÉ UNIZON, Okinawa 2010 BIBLIOTHECA, Morioka Shoten, Tokyo 2017 BIBLIOTHECA, Galerie 412, Tokyo 2017 BIBLIOTHECA, PGI, Tokyo 2018 Domon Ken Award Winner's Exhibition, BIBLIOTHECA, The Gallery, Nikon Plaza (Shinjuku, Osaka) 2018 Domon Ken Award Winner's Exhibition, BIBLIOTHECA, Ken Domon Museum of Photography (Yamagata)

Selected Group Exhibitions Source: 1981 Jinwa Jinminkosha, OWL, Tokyo 1982 China Life Report, Polaroid Gallery, Tokyo 1989 6・un・expressionism, FROG, Tokyo 1995 Tokyo/City of Photo, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2004 Maho-chan-chi (Maho-chan’s Lovely Home), Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki 2008 China/Bibliotheca/Manga, Lee Ka-sing Gallery, Toront, Canada 2012 Reinventing Tokyo, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 2015 The Kaji House, Hayama, Kanagawa 2016 Dislocations, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA 2018 A Moveable Feast, Xian Memories Museum, Xian, China 2018 The Photographic Society of Japan Awards, Winner’s Exhibition, Fujifilm Square, Tokyo 2018 The Higashikawa Awards, Award Winning Exhibition, Higashikawa Bunka Gallery, Hokkaido 2019 A Bright Home, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima 2021 Anneke Hymmen & Kumi Hiroi, Tokuko Ushioda, Mari Katayama, Maiko Haruki, Mayumi Hosokura, and Your Perspectives, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo 2022 From Student to Master: Tokuko Ushioda and Her Teachers, Alison Bradley Projects, New York