AWARDS

Born in 1983 in Saitama, where she is still based, SUZUKI graduated from the Tokyo Zokei University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting. In 2022, she completed a master’s degree in Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts. In 2018, she studied in the UK with a grant from the Pola Art Foundation, and the following year, she completed a doctoral program in Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Her major solo exhibitions include “HIRAKU Project Vol.16 Nozomi Suzuki: The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope” at the Atrium Gallery, Pola Museum of Art in 2024; “Words of Light” at Dai-ichi Gallery in 2024 and Morooka Seisakujo, Saitama, in 2023; and “Artist × Camera Collection of Yokohama City: Suzuki Nozomi Exhibition” at Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino in 2023.

In addition, SUZUKI participated in the group exhibition “Photographs of Innocence and Experience: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.14” from 2017 to 2018, “ Top Collection Serendipity – Wondrous Discoveries in Daily Life” in 2023 at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, and “Latent Scenery” at the Arts Maebashi, Gunma, from 2022 to 2023.

In 2024, SUZUKI was selected for the 27^th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art. She received the VOCA Recognition Award at the Vision of Contemporary Art Exhibition in 2016, the Embassy of France Award at the Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi in 2015, the Shigeo Goto Prize at the TOKYO FRONTLINE PHOTO AWARD in 2015, and the Gateau Festa Harada Award at the Gunma Biennale for Young Artists in 2015.

In 2022, she published her photobook “LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS”  through rin art association. Her works are part of the collection of the Arts Maebashi, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, and the Gateau Festa Harada.

Artist Statements

I first visited Higashikawa Town during the Photo Festival in 2014, where I met many people. Even now, I feel deeply moved by the lasting connections formed back then.

Driven by a desire to visualize the memories embedded in objects, I was drawn to photography as an indexical medium, and in 2011, I began exploring the style of work I create today. Since then, I have regarded latent images—those that can be discovered in objects through physical phenomena such as pinhole projection, light projection, transmission, refraction, and reflection—as the “memories of things.” Through the fundamental principles of photography, I have attempted to bring these latent images into visibility.

Starting with personal objects from my own daily life, my subjects naturally extended to things that are linked with modern history and collective memory. Rather than identifying as a creator, I hope to serve as a mediator or translator for the “language of light.” It is a great honor for me to receive the New Photographer Award for my creative endeavors. Moving forward, I want to continue contemplating the memories embedded in the origins of objects, and let them guide my creative process.

SUZUKI Nozomi