飯田 夏生実

Naomi Iida

During the four years that I suffered from the "empty nest syndrome" after raising my children, I seriously reconsidered the relationship between mother and child, and the wonder of the existence of a mother. I continued to take self-portraits daily as a means to reconsider. This act has given me a great deal.
The act of taking photographs and seeing myself in them gave me the strength to support myself in the midst of my suffering and enabled me to look at the nature of my suffering more calmly.
Furthermore, it gives me a sense that photography will lead to the recovery of a more open connection with people while maintaining a connection with society.
At the same time, it was an attempt to expand the concept of self-portraiture in my own way.
It also became a record of my daily search for ways to survive the life stage transition of women who are about to enter old age without denying it and without distorting themselves, something that has rarely been addressed in the past. It teaches that living everyday life is also a quiet battle.

bio
Naomi Iida was born in Tokyo. After graduating from Nihon University College of Art with a degree in film studies, she worked as a journalist for an architecture magazine before joining a publishing company specializing in film books. Through editing film-related books, she gained experience in newsgathering photography, as well as in handling still photos from films. She left the company after the birth of her second child, and has since worked as a freelance editor. While raising her children, she picked up her camera again to record their growth. In March 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, she began to think more deeply about photography, and in April 2012 she began to study photography in earnest at the PHaT PHOTO Photography School. She completed Workshop 2B, the Ryo Owada Seminar at the Japan Photography Institute, and Marc Proust's "Rising Sun" workshop. After a short break, she enrolled in the correspondence course in Photography of the Department of Aesthetics at Kyoto University of Art and Design, graduating in 2021. Currently, she is
producing works that focus on issues that women face today.