The Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks Photographer Lecture Series with Ishiuchi Miyako and Katayama Mari

Join us for the next fall Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks lecture of the year featuring world renowned photographers Ishiuchi Miyako and Katayama Mari, moderated by curator Pauline Vermare. Both artists will discuss the wide-ranging scope of their career, including both Katayama’s and Ishiuchi's work on view in our current exhibition I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now.

This program is being offered both in person at ICP, located on NYC's Lower East Side, and online. Current ICP students and faculty of the One-Year Certificate programs are automatically enrolled and invited to attend all lectures.

Past speakers of the Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks Lecture series include: JEB, Philip Cheung, Donna Ferrato, Naima Green, David Alekhuogie, Keisha Scarville, Roe Ethridge, and Erin Schaff.

About the Series:

The 2026-2027 Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks Photographer Lecture Series is made possible through generous support from the Rosenblum Family. Additional support for this program was provided by the Japan Foundation, New York and for Ishiuchi Miyako, by Marukawa Collection.

ICP is thrilled to honor Naomi Rosenblum’s contribution to the field and to further her life’s work through this lecture series. Naomi Rosenblum was one of the leading photography historians of her generation and the author of A World History of Photography and A History of Women Photographers. The 2025-2026 Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks Photographer Lecture Series is made possible through generous support from the Rosenblum Family. 

About the Speakers:

Ishiuchi Miyako (born in Kiryū, Japan, 1947) is a Japanese photographer based in Gunma prefecture. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Kimura Ihei Memorial Photographic Award (1978) and the Hasselblad Award (2014). Her work is included in collections worldwide.

Katayama Mari is a multidisciplinary artist based in Gunma, Japan.  Born in 1987 in Saitama, she graduated with a Master’s degree from the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012. Katayama’s artistic practice begins with intricately hand-sewn fabric objects which feature in her photography, video, and activist art projects. She uses her body as a living sculpture, a mannequin and a lens through which to reflect society and our environment.

Pauline Vermare is the Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum. Previously, she served as the cultural director of Magnum Photos in New York, and curator at the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Header Image: Ishiuchi Miyako, Mother’s #39, 2002. Courtesy Third  Gallery Aya, Osaka, and Aperture

About the Exhibition

I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now reconsiders and expands on the history of Japanese photography through the work twenty-eight intergenerational artists from the 1950s to today. Presented in partnership with Aperture and curated by Pauline Vermare, Lesley A. Martin, and Takeuchi Mariko, the exhibition includes work by Fujioka Aya, Hara Mikiko, Hiromix, Ishikawa Mao, Ishiuchi Miyako, Katayama Mari, Kawauchi Rinko, Komatsu Hiroko, Kon Michiko, Nagashima Yurie, Narahashi Asako, Ninagawa Mika, Nishimura Tamiko, Noguchi Rika, Nomura Sakiko, Okabe Momo, Okanoue Toshiko, Onodera Yuki, Sawada Tomoko, Shiga Lieko, Sugiura Kunié, Suzuki Nozomi, Tawada Yuki, Tokiwa Toyoko, Ushioda Tokuko, Watanabe Hitomi, Yamazawa Eiko and Yanagi Miwa.

Spanning photography, installation, photobooks, and printed matter, the exhibition explores the experiences and perspectives of women in Japan through delicate and blunt observations of everyday life, critical reflections on the roles inhabited and reshaped by Japanese women, and approaches that push the boundaries of photography. The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication (Aperture, 2024) that expands upon content of the show through essays, historical material, and a comprehensive bibliography of photobooks made by Japanese women.