Mother’s 25 March 1916 #53 [breast]
One of Japan’s preeminent photographers, Ishiuchi is known for work that explores trauma, loss, and the traces of time’s passage in the context of postwar Japan. These five photographs belong to her series, “Mother’s,” which she began in 2000, shortly before her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship, passed away at age 84. Over the course of several years, Ishiuchi photographed clothing, makeup, and other personal effects that belonged to her mother, a strong-willed woman who came of age in colonial Manchuria in the 1930s and worked as a truck driver in wartime Japan. Printed at varying scales in both color and black-and-white, the photographs evoke a posthumous intimacy in which objects are transformed into potent repositories of human touch.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mother’s 25 March 1916 #53 [breast]
- Artist: Ishiuchi Miyako (Japanese, born Gunma, 1947)
- Date: 2000, printed 2018
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 42 1/2 × 29 1/2 in. (108 × 74.9 cm)
Framed: 43 1/2 × 30 1/2 in. (110.5 × 77.5 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2018
- Object Number: 2018.571
- Rights and Reproduction: © Ishiuchi Miyako
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.