TAKAKO KIDO - EXPOSURE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL

“Skinship” is a Japanese word that describes the skin-to-skin, heart-to-heart relationship between a mother and a child or family. It includes various forms of closeness; holding hands, cuddling, carrying a child on the back, breastfeeding, co-bathing, co-sleeping and even just playing together, anything which build intimacy. Through an experience of loving touch, a child learns caring for others. Japanese skinship is considered to be important for strengthening the bond of family and also for the child’s healthy development. 

Because the idea of skinship was perfectly natural to me as Japanese, it was only after I was arrested in New York due to the family snapshots of skinship, did I realize how unique and shocking it could be in other cultural contexts. Living in both Japan and America showed me a clear cultural comparison and paradox.

Back in Japan, I gave birth to my son in 2012. There was no boundary between our bodies; a symbiotic union. There was a feeling of oneness. Somehow I started making self-portraits amidst the chaos of everyday life. Photographing my son growing up and enjoying skinship also enabled healing my old wound.

Child-rearing is new and nostalgic at the same time. As I parent my child, I re-experience my own childhood, which is both happy and sad. As I see my son grows, I accept my aging and realize it’s not long until I have to say goodbye to my parents. When I was a kid, my late beloved grandmother told me when she saw me cry at the idea of her death that I would be ok because we would go in order. I couldn’t accept it at that time. But now as a mother, I understand what my grandmother told me and the cycle of life and death.

BIOGRAPHY

Takako Kido was born in Japan in 1970 and received a B.A. in Economics from Soka University in Japan in 1993. After graduating from the International Center of Photography in 2003, she remained in New York working as a B&W printer and retoucher. She returned to Japan in 2008 and currently lives in her hometown, Kochi.

She has exhibited work internationally, at Foley Gallery in New York, USA, Sprengel Museum Hannover in Hannover, Germany, Noam Gallery in Seoul, Korea, Tagajo City Library, Miyagi, Japan, Marute Gallery, Kagawa, Japan, Newspace Center for Photography, Oregon, USA. Her work has also been featured in publications and web magazines including IL FOTOGRAFO, CLAN magazine, Musee magazine, PhotoVOGUE, Kochi Newspaper, NHK World-Japan.

She was one of a Photolucida Critical Mass 2021 Top 50 photographers and also a finalist of Gomma Photography Grant 2021. In 2022, she received a grant from Women Photograph. Recently her work was awarded the 3rd place for VONOVIA Award fur Fotografie 2022 in Germany and selected for LensCulture Summer Open 2022 winner.