This short series is part of ヒステリー[Hysteria] project and a very recent addition carried out during the Independence Day weekend 2024.

Joined the pilgrim trip and climbed up Castle Rock. Sharing moments with others who have family connections. Nearly 40 degrees without humidity.

This project is about the mass hysteria following the Pearl Harbour Attack, and how it impacted on people with Japanese ancestry residing mostly on the Pacific coast, after Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Over 120,000 people were sent to 10 internment camps across the United States, and MAKIKO recently discovered that her great, great uncle was one of them.

The work is mainly focused on what happened in the Tule Lake camp, the first camp in which he was interned. The research takes in archive materials, interviews and visits, as well as considering the internees’ strengths based on solidarity, and how they thrived between 1942 - 1945 and into the post-war period.

The concepts and themes at the heart of this project are highly relevant to what is going on in the world currently: emigrating to find a dream in a foreign country, dealing with a change in society due to conflict/war, struggling to establish identity, to find community, belief or religion, etc.

History repeats.

She has been working to create the cross-media visuals, combining photography, archive images, collages, painting (with dyed mud pigment powder and acrylic paint) and moving-film still-image clips. The paint work is inspired by Gerhard Richter, tutored by Peter Kennard.

This project will be showcased at RCA2024 in June 2024. Her exhibition includes a black and white photography (shown on project page), a mixed media work (right), a KYUGORO (dummy) book (right middle) and an original hymnal MAKIKO inherited from Kyugoro's family, a performance of reading poems from "Legends from Camp" and "Before the War" written by renowned Lawson Inada, a poet laureate and her relative in the US and jazz which was one of the elements in Inada's style.

This project is selected to be a finalist for Carte Blanche of Paris Photo 2024.

This short film is part of the PICTURE IMPERFECT project which describes vulnerable children and their struggle for mental health and developing identity. The film consists of handwritten thoughts on pandemic and voice recording by the children in the community of York, North Yorkshire.

MAKIKO has worked with The Island, a local charity, that mentors the youth through art activities in York. All the children involved have experienced early life trauma or pre-existing mental challenges. The conceptualisation of this project coincided with the national lockdowns. Her region was particularly hard hit. This in turn has had a profound impact on these children's lives. It also placed restrictions on how she needed to approach her work and the necessity of an innovative solution to comply with regulations. MAKIKO provided the children with disposable cameras to shoot their everyday life. The early part of her photo shooting was carried out remotely during lockdown to document what they were doing and thinking at home.

As a result, it became a transmedia project - MAKIKO was the conduit of her subjects' stories, revealing their lived experience of isolation and shifting identities through her audio, film and still images. She had woven together a timely and historically relevant narrative, acting as a facilitator for the youth who became co-authors in creating their "scenes".

Her project is an example of how artists and subjects can work together. It has potential to invite further dialogue about mental health and identity among the youth as well as acts as a historical record of our times.

This project is about vulnerable children and their struggle for mental health and developing identity. MAKIKO has worked with The Island that mentors the youth through art activities in York. All the children involved have experienced early life trauma or pre-existing mental challenges. The conceptualisation of this project coincided with the national lockdowns. Her region was particularly hard hit. This in turn has had a profound impact on these children's lives. It also placed meaningful restrictions on how she needed to approach her work and the necessity of an innovative solution to comply with regulations. MAKIKO provided the children with disposable cameras to shoot their everyday life. The early part of her photo shooting was carried out remotely during lockdown to document what they were doing and thinking at home. As a result, it became a transmedia project - MAKIKO was the conduit of her subjects' stories, revealing their lived experience of isolation and shifting identities through her audio, film and still images. She had woven together a timely and historically relevant narrative, acting as a facilitator for the youth who became co-authors in creating their "scenes".

Her proiect is an example of how artists and subiects can work together. The exhibition has potential to invite further dialogue about mental health and identity among the youth as well as acts as a historical record of our times.

MAKIKO won art grant from Art Council England to work on this project. She was a recent mentee at Magnum Photos and this project is featured on Magnum Photo’s website.

While MAKIKO has regularly taken timeless images of the city of York, North Yorkshire, where she lived over ten years, she documented people’s facial expressions by conducting candid photos within a fairly close distance, often situating herself in alleys so-called snickelways.

The town has changed significantly due to the political and economic uncertainty since the EU referendum, then the Covid-19 pandemic and now change of government which brought us to the period of further uncertainty. All the images submitted were shot when the Covid restrictions were eased up temporarily and she captured emotionally charged images of adults in her community.

This is a long-term project. More to come.

MAKIKO heard that Sólheimajökull (the outlet of the largest glacier Mýrdalsjökull) has been disappearing. Visited the glacier, which is located between Katla and Eyjafjallajökull volcanoes, as well as surrounding areas in southern Iceland. This Koori Project is suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the 3rd island themed project for her.

The image won British Journal of Photography International Photography Awards in 2020 and was exhibited at Seen Fifteen Gallery in April-May 2021.

Copyright MAKIKO/WVIL

In October 2016, MAKIKO made a pilgrimage to the uninhabited Japanese island of Nozaki, which has been gradually deserted since mid 60’s. She was intrigued with a saga of ‘Hidden’ Christians who settled on the island in early 19th century, practicing Christianity in secret for decades (while the country was closed for any foreign trade and cultural exchanges) and a century later they had their own churches for worship but then left.

Her Black & White images follow her spiritual journey through the mountain trail where Christians walked regularly between late 19th and mid-20th century to attend Mass. Whilst trekking, she captures wild Kyushu deer and trees in the wild forest as well as the unusual landscape, influenced by the volcanic activities and the harsh climate.

Further information
It would be interesting to know what Nozakijima looks like in colour by viewing its promotional video made by Sasebo Tourism Convention, a local government agency.

The uninhabited Japanese Island of Gunkanjima (also known as Battleship Island) and since 2015 registered as an UNESCO world heritage site, is the subject for MAKIKO’s photo series entitled “BATTLESHIP ISLAND”. (Previously called “Paradise Revisited”)

This series, consists of 700+ monochrome photographs, captures childhood memories of this island, which has been abandoned and untouched for over 40 years. The island recently appeared as a haunting backdrop in the 007 movie ‘Skyfall’, representing the evil home of villain, Raoul Silva.   

In Summer 2015 MAKIKO was granted rare permission by Nagasaki City to visit the restricted zone, in order to show how it is now and to remember how it was 40 years ago, through the memories of a former resident who was from a mining family and spent a happy childhood on the island, leaving at the age of 13.

Shooting from his perspective as a child, MAKIKO has produced a beautiful and powerful photo essay, which recalls priceless memories of a time spent in what was once a childhood paradise.

The island of Gunkamjina used to be an industrial metropolis. It was known for its coal mine and was bought by Mitsubishi in 1890 who began extracting coal from undersea mines. In 1916, the company built Japan's first large 7 storey concrete building, choosing concrete specifically to protect against typhoon destruction.  

In 1960, population on the island reached its peak of 5,267 inhabitants, making it one of the most densely crowded places on earth, but when petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, the coal mines started shutting down and Mitsubishi closed its mine in 1974. The residents were asked to leave within three months and as leaving ships could not accommodate all their possessions, many of them left their belongings inside of their homes.  As a result, the island is caught in a time capsule.

MAKIKO’s photographs were taken just after the City received its UNESCO World Heritage status. The focus was on the outside spaces (the buildings were to unstable to enter) and the project shows some of the places where children played, including the school and playground, tennis courts, flats occupied by teaching staff, the hospital, the walk to the park. She has also capture some of the imaginative Japanese graffiti. The photographs are accompanied by a narrative story as remembered by former resident, helping to bring these vivid scenes to life.

This series was published as BATTLESHIP ISLAND by Dewi Lewis Publishing in January 2018.

A priceless review from Daido Moriyama:

"Quite a few of the photographers who have shot Battleship Island have approached me so far.  However, I think that many of the photos MAKIKO has captured best describe the lapse of time. In fact, she must have detached her emotion from the photographic objects first, then managed to position herself to the objects as close as possible in order to capture the real - as such her camerawork enables her to express her profound feeling further. In addition to this, by including many archive photos describing what kind of daily life the residents used to have, (the book) is able to highlight the quality of  time human beings possess. It reflects the essence of photography as media."