TIFA 2021 Editorial / Photo Essay

Skinship

  • Prize
    Silver in Editorial/Photo Essay
  • Jury Top 5 Selection
  • Photographer
    Takako Kido

Skinship is a Japanese word that describes the skin-to-skin relationship between family. Through an experience of loving touch, a child learns caring for others. Japanese skinship is considered to be important for strengthening the bond of family and also for the child’s healthy development. Because the idea of skinship was perfectly natural to me as Japanese, only after I was arrested in New York because of family snapshots of skinship, did I realize how unique and shocking it could be in other cultural contexts. Living in both Japan and America showed me a cultural comparison and paradox.

Born in Kochi, Japan in 1970. After graduating from the International Center of Photography’s full-time General Studies program in 2003, she remained in New York working as a B&W printer and retoucher while also exhibiting and publishing a series of photo-essay projects for the Kochi Shimbun newspaper. She returned to Japan in 2008 and currently lives in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. She presents her work in solo and group exhibitions and at slide shows both in Japan and overseas.