Mayumi Suzuki
Born in Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture 1977, graduated from the photography department at the Nihon University College of Art. A visual storyteller, Mayumi Suzuki creates works based on personal stories. She grew up in a family that ran a photo studio founded by her grandfather in 1930, and at the age of 18 began studying in the Department of Photography of Nihon University College of Art. After graduating, she worked as a freelance photographer, focusing on portraits. The Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011. Suzuki’s hometown of Onagawa was destroyed by the tsunami and her parents lost their lives. Since that time, she has frequently returned to her hometown to record the efforts of people in the area to move forward from the disaster. Since 2020, she has been working on her new project “Hōjō” (fertility), which portrays her experience going through infertility treatment. Her The Restoration Will, self-published in 2017, has been highly acclaimed, receiving, among other awards, the Photobox Grand Prix (Italy) and the 2018 PHOTO ESPANA International Division Best Photobook of the Year (Spain). An up-and-coming Japanese artist, her work “Twilight Daylight” (Japanese title: “Ashita no hikari”) was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2020.