{"id":271,"date":"2026-05-30T11:36:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T11:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=271"},"modified":"2026-05-30T11:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T11:36:42","slug":"the-expansive-joy-of-mao-ishikawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=271","title":{"rendered":"The Expansive Joy of Mao Ishikawa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s an understatement to say that we live in a world that is at least partially defined by a surfeit of images, and that the photographs we like, or remember, are those we take ourselves. Selfies or photos documenting travel, anniversaries, the great and boring events of life\u2014we cling to these pictures as a way of navigating where we\u2019ve been and who we\u2019d like to be. But these images of our smiling, idealized selves, no matter how true they may be to how we want<\/em> to feel and be regarded, rarely make room for pain, let alone the more troubling aspects of existence, and we stare at the colorful snapshots taken from our bubble of self-regard, wondering why their fiction of order and happiness sometimes makes us feel so sad.<\/p>\n

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A number of twentieth-century photographers, ranging from Lisette Model to Alvin Baltrop, made brilliant forays into desentimentalizing the image of the self by recording people as they were\u2014or, more specifically, by recording what goes into being a social creature\u2014on the streets of Nice, say, in the nineteen-thirties, or on New York City\u2019s West Side piers in the nineteen-eighties. Other photographers have produced images that encourage a more private view of their subjects, even as they move through the theatre of being. The Japanese photographer Mao Ishikawa\u2019s black-and-white works\u2014more than thirty of which are currently on view in her show \u201cRogue,\u201d at Alison Bradley Projects (through June 13th)\u2014are significant for their depiction of intimacy and of the role that politics play in who we are and what we do. Ishikawa doesn\u2019t take photography for granted; nor does she use it solely as a tool to examine her own subjectivity\u2014that is, what she feels about herself, her singularity, in a universe crammed with others. Rather, her pictures are marked by an expansive joy, one in which the medium plays a part, for sure, but the majority of which comes from her subjects and their willingness to display themselves before her camera, an instrument that mystifies even as it elucidates. It\u2019s important to remember that some of Ishikawa\u2019s images were made as long as fifty years ago, and their vibrancy demonstrates how far ahead she was when it came to seeking out subjects she found interesting, not framed by \u201cdifference,\u201d but not afraid of it, either.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Born in 1953 in Okinawa, Japan\u2019s southernmost prefecture, which was occupied by the United States from the end of the Second World War until 1972, Ishikawa studied photography at the WORKSHOP<\/em> School of Photography, in Tokyo. Like many young photographers, she was fascinated by her home region, which included the worlds that had sprung up around the U.S. military base Camp Hansen. Her \u201cRed Flower (Akabanaa)\u201d series, from 1975 to 1977, focussed on the Okinawan women who worked in various establishments around the base, sometimes capturing them fraternizing with Black American servicemen, in images that lack any hint of cynicism, of the sense that people are using other people for their own ends. Did these men and women feel different from one another, or was their difference built into their eros? Ishikawa herself worked in one of the bars that served Black soldiers, at a time when most establishments were segregated. (Looking at the pictures, I was reminded of the astonishing moments in Rainer Werner Fassbinder\u2019s 1979 film \u201cThe Marriage of Maria Braun,\u201d set after the Second World War, in which the German protagonist learns English from a Black officer who is also her lover. War allows for fraternizing in ways that peace does not.)<\/p>\n

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Objectification can be fun, too, and you see that pleasure in three outstanding images in particular from the \u201cRed Flower (Akabanaa)\u201d series, which are on display at Alison Bradley. (\u201cRed Flower\u201d is also the title of Ishikawa\u2019s first monograph published in the U.S., in 2017, and it\u2019s fascinating to see there just how deep she went into the lives of these women, some of whom built families with the servicemen.) All are gelatin-silver prints, a format that adds to the shock and the warmth of the flash lighting. In one shot, we see a couple in bed, looking delightedly at the camera, and then, in the next, the same couple facing each other as they kiss. The tenderness of their need is moving. The third image shows some Black men outside what I assume to be a bar. The distance is reportorial\u2014Ishikawa pulls back to show us what this world looks like, at least in part\u2014and what really gets to me are certain details in the picture. It\u2019s a warm night; to the right of the frame, a woman in a long dress stands between two men. The man to her left wears a short-sleeved shirt; her companion on the other side sports a patterned shirt, light-colored pants, and a pair of white shoes. The flash is like another level of heat. But what one fixates on here is how the two men flanking the woman stand protectively close to her. They are not possessive; they simply recognize her smallness, her vulnerability, while Ishikawa recognizes theirs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There are thirteen images from the \u201cRed Flower\u201d series in the show, and you will long for more, but don\u2019t let that distract you from what\u2019s on display, or from the questions that tie \u201cRed Flower\u201d to the three other series represented in the show, \u201cLife in Philly\u201d (1986), \u201cA Port Town Elegy\u201d (1983-86), and \u201cMy Family\u201d (2001-05): What makes a photograph interesting? Its subjects? Its choice of black-and-white or color? Its framing? The moment it catches? Ishikawa doesn\u2019t turn away from the tension of asking what photography is even as she takes a photograph. The men in \u201cA Port Town Elegy\u201d are day laborers and dockworkers she met through a bar she owned in Naha. The energy in these pictures is different from that in \u201cRed Flower\u201d\u2014more confrontational, infused with male bravado and despair. The subjects are defined by poverty and its limiting power: one gets the sense that they drink to forget themselves, while howling to declare themselves\u2014to the cosmos, to one another, to Ishikawa\u2019s camera. A man dancing alone, barefoot, is a wonderful portrait of unself-conscious desolation and freedom, all at once. The photographs in \u201cA Port Town Elegy\u201d are strong images about being trapped and exercising masculinity. But who takes the poor\u2019s power or demand for power seriously? Ishikawa doesn\u2019t sentimentalize these guys; she lets them get in her face (and, by extension, her frame), she pays attention to them, and imagine how rare that is in their world! The distinctly male flavor of these pictures is a very good counterpart to \u201cRed Flower.\u201d The guys at the port may have no economic power, but they belong; the Black servicemen at Camp Hansen don\u2019t. That\u2019s part of the poignancy of both series of images: we all want so much to belong, to count, that there are times when we can\u2019t help but express it.<\/p>\n

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Hilton Als on the Japanese photographer Mao Ishikawa\u2019s works, upon a show of her work, \u201cRogue,\u201d at Alison Bradley Projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photo-booth"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Expansive Joy of Mao Ishikawa - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=271\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Expansive Joy of Mao Ishikawa - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hilton Als on the Japanese photographer Mao Ishikawa\u2019s works, upon a show of her work, \u201cRogue,\u201d at Alison Bradley Projects.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=271\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-30T11:36:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"headline\":\"The Expansive Joy of Mao Ishikawa\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T11:36:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271\"},\"wordCount\":1227,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/fb0c63651cca5067f35eddd522a0e9b3.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Photo Booth\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=271\",\"name\":\"The Expansive Joy of Mao Ishikawa - 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