Exhibitions

Beyond Pink

Red Box Project

Women In Color

Shinjuku Electric Lady Land

Handsome

Keepers Of The Pass

Back to the Streets

Metamorphic Spirit

Beyond Pink

Beyond Pink - Award-winning photo series

My mother and I at a BEYOND PINK charity event raising money for breast cancer research

These award winning images are very close to my heart. When I picked my mother up from the hospital after her mastectomy she was hunched over in shame and embarrassment. I was just happy she was still alive after her second bout with breast cancer. I made this series to not make you pity her because of these scars but to empower her and other women to celebrate what they have endured. I want everyone to feel comfortable in their own skin and own their body and their power.

These series have received Honorable Mention in Siena International Photo Awards and Tokyo International Foto Awards.

It was also a top featured images in Bored Panda’s coverage of SIPA.

Beyond Pink - Selected Images

More Images from on going photo series BEYOND PINK

PRESS COVERAGE

Bored Panda article featuring BEYOND PINK series award winning images from SIPA

Lingerie Briefs article featuring BEYOND PINK series

HANDSOME

BACK TO THE STREETS
書店外里帰り

About the exhibition

Back to the Streets delves into the dying world of Tokyo's shotengai, Japanese traditional retail shopping streets. As Tokyo develops, the city's youth and youth culture have centered their shopping in two major districts: Shibuya and Harajuku’s shotengai. The outskirts of Tokyo's older traditional shopping streets like Sugamo are populated by senior citizens and largely ignored by the city's youth.

Yee breathes new life into Sugamo's famous traditional shopping streets through a series of portraits that preserve the shotengai's individual sense of community while infusing it with youth culture and fashion. Yee refocuses attention on shotengais by uniting the two disparate communities. In a playful juxtoposition of clashing but compatible cultures, Toyo's silver generation mingles with the Cosplay, Goth-lolita youth generation.

Back to the Streets is held at Nakaochiai Gallery, a former noodle shop on a dead shotengai. Generations collide and connect in the BACK TO THE STREETS photography series.

The extreme difference between "Ura and Omote" (the surface and what lies beneath) is what continues to influence much of her work. The organized and clinical approach of much of Japanese society contrasts with what she calls, "the city's crazy underworld culture and landscape".

This was her first solo exhibition. Held at Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Metamorphic Spirit

METAMORPHIC SPIRIT, 2010
YUKA OYAMA AND BECKY YEE

Which animals have we replaced; which animals are hidden inside of us? Together with a NY based artist, Becky Yee, Oyama sought to display apparitions of the Berliners’ inner animals on a public media facade. To begin this artwork, Oyama interviewed 31 Berliners ranging in age from 6 – 86 and asked questions about which animal that they believe that are hidden inside them and give them energy. Afterwards, Oyama sketched their animals and created masks. Yee choreographed and photographed the interviewees who re-enacted essential movements of their animals. Consequently, we produced 31 stop motion video clips and projected them on the GASOMETER Screen, a 2,297 square feet (700 square meter) multimedia screen at night.

**ANIMAL STORY ARCHIVE 01 DRAGON**

“I am born in the Year of Dragon.”

**ANIMAL STORY ARCHIVE 02 WOLF**

“Teeth growing in all directions, and the tongue hanging out. I have read that wolves are very social. If a wolf is sick or injured, he will not die of hunger. His fellow wolves will always bring food for him. They support each other. There is a person who I want to protect. I want to be an aggressive looking wolf, which scares and repels all the bad beings and doings. I am also very tough. I have clear goals and I stick to them, it doesn't matter how hard they are. I never give up.”

**ANIMAL STORY ARCHIVE 03 HARE**

“Peaceful and friendly. I am a born hare. My family name is Haase (hare in German).”

**OBJECT STORY ARCHIVE 05** **JAGUAR**

“I am not a strong person, so I need a strong animal like a jaguar inside of me to deal with my outside world. I want my jaguar to look decisive and strong.”

**ANIMAL STORY ARCHIVE 06 KOALA BEAR**

“Quiet, cozy, and cuddling. I always have to come down. Lying on a sofa.”

**OBJECT STORY ARCHIVE 07 BIRD OF PARADISE**

“I am looking for my paradise.”

**ANIMAL STORY ARCHIVE 08 CAT**

“My fear of dogs has eventually lead me to completely retreat from my religion and my friendships. Consequently, it made me a complete loner like a cat—all this was caused by dogs.”

**ARCHIVE 09 MIXTURE OF PIG, PEACOCK, AND SKUNK.**

“Pig: I am dirty. I like to talk about dirty stuff. I don’t clean up. Pigs are tough and rough. They search on the ground for food and don’t care. Pigs sleep in their own shit. They are really punk. I am punk like pigs.
Peacock: Showing off their feathers. I like to wear colourful and nice clothes. They look feminine, but are very masculine.
Skunk: They are cute and funny, but they stink.”

Gallery of images

Hunger Dreams

Hunger Dreams sets out to explore the subconscious relationship between our unspoken desires and food itself. Through intimate hypnosis sessions with a diverse cross-section of strangers, Hunger Dreams surfaces the intricate connections between memories and associations with food and the deeper emotional landscape that food represents to each subject. From filling the void of death to finding a sense of place in ancestral lands, Hunger Dreams offers a deep and human portrait of the human condition and its relationship with our most basic and fundamental act of finding nourishment.

HUNGER DREAMS EXPLORES THE SUBCONSCIOUS AND OUR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD AND EMOTIONAL NOURISHMENT.
WHAT ARE WE FEEDING? WHAT ARE OUR DEEPER HUNGERS?

The first in the series dives into the world of Haiti. Peasant food takes us back to memories of both family and class divides and the healing, soulful, simplicity provided by the most basic of foods cooked outside.

BREAK OUT Session #4 - Becky Yee

The Break Out Project resonated so much with my own philosophy and my experience of working as a professional photographer. I believe that we should embrace and love all the parts of our bodies and feel completely comfortable and confident with ourselves and our bodies.

Growing up in America there is a deep rooted belief that women cannot be respected unless they are demure. That women are not intelligent if they show their bodies and dress scantily. Yet each and everyone one of us are born naked and unashamed of our bodies. Where do we make the switch and start to be self conscious and embarrassed about showing parts of our god given bodies?

For the project Break Out, I chose to work with all breast cancer survivors. This is a very personal choice because my mother had breast cancer and when I picked her up at the hospital after her mastectomy surgery she was hunched over, cowering and covering up her chest even with clothes on. She felt disgusted at looking at her body when she was alone, much less showing it to other people in public. Years later at an event celebrating my award winning “Beyond Pink” Photo Series, surrounded by other breast cancer survivors my mom with a little prodding took her shirt off in public and bared her nippless reconstructed breast. I was so proud of her and she was also smiling and beaming with joy.

Whatever your body has been through, you should be proud of your body. If you want to take your clothes off and pose nude then it's your choice. I also want to educate people who have never seen what breast cancer looks like and not be shocked or disturbed. I hope these images help everyone to break out of their societal pressures and norms to do what feels right for them. Hopefully we can all embrace and love our bodies as they are now and photographing them is a beautiful loving way to start.

Special thanks to from Ana Ono and Photo Editor Ivona Owens and Color Wheel Studios

Ana Ono, Dana Donofree, Caitlin Shi - instagram @anaono intimates/

Oliphant Studio, Sarah Oliphant & Team instagram @oliphantstudio

Color Wheel Studios instagram @colorwheelstudios

Hair & makeup Stephanie Powers https://stephaniepowersmakeup.com @stephaniepowersmakeup