Creatures Alone and Together: Isolation, Illness, and Dysphoria in the Nude Photography of Anrakuji Emi and Okabe Momo

Iizawa Kо̄tarо̄’s characterization of the late twentieth-century women photographers as onnanoko shashin (“girls’ photography”) is partially founded on how private spheres of the photographer’s life are made public through her artistic practices. Moving through and beyond the problematic qualities of Iizawa’s identification of the “female principle” in Japanese photography, this talk analyzes the work of contemporary photographers Okabe Momo and Anrakuji Emi to explore what changes when public access to these private spheres is predicated on female photographers challenging the viewer to witness the trauma and transformation of their own bodies.