Taraco, 2018.
A face framed by a crop of shiny black hair is sandwiched between two pieces of white bread. Peering out from between the slices, Izumi Miyazaki focuses her gaze on the camera. “Go on, laugh, I dare you,” she seems to be saying. Pan (2013) epitomises the photographer’s witty aesthetic: photoshopped selfies are the bread and butter of her practice.
“Self-portraits are the best way for me to create something. I’m not really any good with people,” the 25-year-old explains. Growing up in Japan, Miyazaki believes that she was ingrained with certain cultural customs, making it difficult for her to photograph others. “In Japan, I was educated on the importance of being humble,” she says. “As a photographer, I tend to tend that this is a disadvantage. I used to have a big inferiority complex because of this.”
Given her demeanour, it’s no surprise that Miyazaki initially felt at home showcasing her work on the Internet. After realising her passion for taking pictures at her high school photography club, Miyazaki opened a Tumblr account in 2012 and began publicly sharing her images. Existing outside of patriarchal art institutions, the microblogging platform gave her the opportunity to take back the gaze, providing a place where she could “ find and prove” her “value and self-worth”. While studying Imaging Arts at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, her account quickly garnered attention, and to date, the photographer has 14k followers on Instagram. Since then, she has learnt to use photography to “show” that she “loves [her]self and” to remind her that she’s beautiful.
Sandwich, 2014.
Alongside other female digital artists that she has exhibited with such as Juno Calypso and Arvida Bystrom, Miyazaki is part of a growing community using photography to subvert artistic traditions. “I tend to regard what I want to do as more important than any other rule,” she muses. When asked who she is inspired by, Miyazaki is staunch: “My work isn’t inspired by any photographer in particular. I usually do completely what I want.” Doing what she wants has thus far paid off. This year, Mizayako collaborated with Valentino on its pre-Fall capsule collection, exhibited at Unseen Amsterdam and featured in VICE Magazine’s 2019 Photo Issue.
Despite her distinctive style, it’s impossible to view Miyazaki’s work without acknowledging its surrealist roots. “I was never interested in art classes at school apart from when we were studying Surrealism,” she says. Her vivid use of colour, oneiric subject matter and whimsical compositions point to an appreciation of the genre. “I am really attracted to Surrealism because I get excited about what artists want to express,” she explains. Miyazaki says that her work is an attempt to “portray sadness or anger as something nice and funny”. Whether that’s through splitting her head in half, as in Fish (2015), or standing around a floating piece of broccoli, humour is an integral part of her practice.
Left: Open the eye, 2018. Right: I like you, 2019.
The comedic effects of Miyazaki’s work are twinned with sadness and loneliness. Her digital doctoring of images and carefully choreographed compositions draw attention to the camera’s ability to create a tableau, to manipulate visual truths. The results show happiness tinged with melancholy, and ask us to think about our own relationship to self-produced images as well as what it means to go through life under the guise of a facade.
Though Miyazki’s self-portraits are humorous, she never smiles in them – a malaise widespread among her selfie-obsessed cohorts. “I think my artworks and my life have a strong connection,” she says of her creative process. “I tend to think about meaningless things during my daily life and these thoughts bring about interesting and stimulating ideas for creation.”
In time to come, Miyazaki wishes to shoot Ten, a member of popular Chinese boy band Wayv, but for now, she is continuing to learn to accept “the mental and physical challenges” associated with being a photographer and endeavouring to “constantly collaborate” as she makes her own path.
See more of her work below:
All images by and courtesy of Izumi Miyazaki.
This article originally appeared in SLEEK 64, out now.