Photography, memory and a fifth anniversary

A collaboration with photographer Yuji Fukushima turned Kijima’s fifth career anniversary into a book project and a gallery exhibition. The story is about making photographs, learning to relax in front of the camera and preserving a moment in a changing career.

From a campaign to a gallery

A crowdfunding campaign ran in late 2018 to support an anniversary photobook. After passing its funding target, the project expanded to include an exhibition in Tokyo. The photographs were shown at Gallery LE DECO in Shibuya in April 2019.

The project brought together Kijima, photographer Yuji Fukushima and the supporters who helped finance the work. It gave the anniversary a physical setting where visitors could spend time with the photographs.

Letting the portrait breathe

The photographs were made in Taiwan. Looking back on the sessions, Kijima described moving away from her usual carefully constructed public appearance toward natural makeup and, in some images, no makeup.

Seeing Fukushima’s photographs helped her relax into the process. She remembered a pink cardigan and pool photographs as particularly meaningful moments in that change. The emphasis in her account was on accepting her appearance rather than perfecting it.

A record of a particular moment

Kijima spoke of photographs as memories and records of growth. Different photographers could find different impressions even from a similar angle; the same person did not have to appear in only one way.

The exhibition joined a wider photographic history. Her agency also records a tenth-anniversary exhibition, Kiseki, in August 2023. The two milestones place photography alongside her music and acting as a recurring part of her career.