Ishiuchi Miyako photographs completely different things, yet her 50 years of work all looks unmistakably hers

Mother’s #36 [lipstick] (Image credit: Ishiuchi Miyako. Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya) Ishiuchi Miyako photographs abandoned buildings. She photographs scars on human skin. She photographs old Kimono fabric. She photographs lipstick. She photographs her own water-damaged prints. But there's something that connects all her photography. Something that makes it unmistakably hers. It's not what she's photographing; it's how she photographs. She has an eye for how time leaves marks on things. With how worn objects tell stories through their texture and decay.

Ishiuchi Miyako photographs completely different things, yet her 50 years of work all looks unmistakably hers. Mother’s #36 [lipstick] (Image credit: Ishiuchi Miyako. Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya) Ishiuchi Miyako photographs abandoned buildings. She photographs scars on human skin. She photographs old Kimono fabric. She photographs lipstick. She photographs her own water-damaged prints. But there's something that connects all her photography. Something that makes it unmistakably hers. It's not what she's photographing; it's how she photographs. She has an eye for how time leaves marks on things. With how worn objects tell stories through their texture and decay. The key to understanding her work is this: she isn't photographing things. She's photographing how things show their age. How surfaces record what's happened to them. A lipst...