Hideka Tonomura graduated from the Broadcasting and Filmmaking Department of Visual Arts Osaka, before working as a photographer in 2002. In 2003, she was awarded Nikon Juna21 prize, a prize started in 1999 to discover young talent in the photography field. Tonomura’s work has been exhibited in photo fairs including fotofever in Paris, France (2015); Tokyo Photo in Tokyo, Japan (2013) and NoFound Photo Fair in Paris, France (2012).
Tonomura currently lives and works in Kobe, Japan.
orange elephant reveals Tonomura’s life after coming to Tokyo, working in hostess bars, her sexual experiences and the alienation of the metropolis.
With her photography, Tonomura revealed her deepest pain and dark family secrets, including her mother’s love affair with another man. The subject of the photographs i.e. mama in mama love (2008) series, is fully aware of the existence of the camera, at times even looking into the camera. She appears as the victim in her different relationships within her family and the society. These photographs are confrontational and painful to look at, they are at the same time filled with violence and love.
They called me Yukari is a semi-autographical record of the nightlife in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, consisting of darkly erotic, often out of focus, blurry and intensely shadowed images. The series springs out of Tonomura’s personal experience as a hostess in the red-light district, where she served customers under the pseudonym Yukari.
