Mikiko Hara

Mikiko Hara (原 美樹子) is a Japanese photographer.

Biography
Hara was born in Toyama in 1967. She graduated from Keio University in 1990 with a degree in literature, and then studied at the Tokyo College of Photography until 1996.

Photography
Using a medium-format camera, Hara takes photographs of people she encounters outside, in the train, and so forth. She said "My shooting style is so-called snapshot, so I can say all of my photographs were taken by a mere accident, . . . They are the photographs of somewhere yet nowhere."

Comparing her photography with that of Rinko Kawauchi, Ferdinand Brueggeman writes

"Mikiko Hara's photography is poetic as well, but she has a different topic. She talks about distance and isolation of people in public spaces – especially of women."

Solo exhibitions

 * Is as It. Gallery le Deco (Shibuya, Tokyo), 1996.
 * Agnus Dei. Ginza Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo), 1998.
 * Utsuro no seihō (うつろの製法). Shinjuku Konica Plaza (Shinjuku, Tokyo), 2001. The Third Gallery Aya (Osaka), 2001.
 * Hatsugo no shūen (発語の周縁). Guardian Garden (Ginza, Tokyo), July 2004.
 * Hysteric Thirteen publication exhibition. Place M (Shinjuku, Tokyo), August–September 2005.
 * Humoresque. Appel (Kyōdō, Tokyo), 2006.
 * Blind Letter. Cohen Amador Gallery (New York), 2007.
 * Kumoma no atosaki (雲間のあとさき). Gallery Tosei (Nakano, Tokyo), May 2008.
 * Blind Letter. Third District Gallery (Shinjuku, Tokyo), June 2010.
 * In the Blink of an Eye 1996-2009. Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery (New York), September-November 2017.
 * Kyrie Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, September - October 2019

Other exhibitions

 * Puraibētorūmu 2: Shin sekai no shashin hyōgen (プライベートルーム2 新世代の写真表現) = Private Room II: Photographs by a New Generation of Women in Japan. Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito (Mito, Ibaraki), April–June 1999.
 * Japan: Keramik und Fotografie: Tradition und Gegenwart. Deichtorhallen (Hamburg), January–May 2003.
 * Pingyao International Photography Festival (Pingyao, China), 2004.
 * Nichijō kara no tabi (日常からの旅). Shinjuku Epsite (Shinjuku, Tokyo), November–December 2005.
 * Absolutely Private: Contemporary Photography, vol 4 = 私のいる場所 新進作家展vol.4 ゼロ年代の写真論. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Ebisu, Tokyo), March–April 2006.
 * A Private History. Fotografisk Center (Copenhagen), September 2007 – January 2008.
 * Sangyō toshi Kawasaki no ayumi 100-nen (産業都市・カワサキのあゆみ100年). Kawasaki City Museum (Kawasaki), 2007.
 * Shashin no genzai, kako, mirai: Shōwa kara kyō made (写真の現在・過去・未来 昭和から今日まで). Yokohama Civic Art Gallery (Yokohama), December 2009.
 * Shibui: Six Japanese Photographers 1920s–2000. Stephen Cohen Gallery (Los Angeles), April–June 2009.
 * In Focus: Tokyo. J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, California), August–December 2014.

Collections

 * The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
 * Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris)
 * Getty Museum

Books

 * Hysteric Thirteen. Tokyo: Hysteric Glamour, 2005.
 * These Are Days. Tokyo: Osiris, 2014. ISBN 978-4-905254-04-1.
 * Change. New York: Gould Collection, 2016. ISBN 978-0-9973596-0-2. With a short story by Stephen Dixon, "Change." Edition of 500 copies plus 26 copies with a print.