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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the complex relationship between gender systems and women’s experiences in contemporary Japanese photography. In particular, it looks at gender labels, such as onna no ko shashin (girls’ photography), and the impact these terms continue to have on photography culture today.

Paper long abstract:

Women have been active as professional and amateur photographers in Japan since photography’s introduction in the 19th century, yet it is often viewed as an inherently male pursuit. In the 1990s, an apparent sudden increase of young women gaining critical and popular acclaim excited photography critics and the media, with these women being celebrated as a specific photography movement: onna no ko shashin (girls’ photography). Critics like Iizawa Kotaro argued that onna no ko shashin was a specifically female style of photography, and the increase in the numbers of women interested in photography was largely due to the development of simpler, easy to use compact cameras.

In recent years, photographers, critics, and academics have challenged this narrative of a feminine principle of photography and the implication that it is only when photographic equipment becomes easier that women move from photographic subject to photographer. However, terms like onna no ko shashin continue to be used across photography: from visual art institutions and the camera industry, to women-led camera clubs and by women themselves. Given photography’s position as a form of art, journalism, communication, and as part of a global technology industry deeply embedded in daily life, the question thus remains: how do women navigate these gender labels in photography today?

This paper explores this question by examining how terms like onna no ko shashin continue to impact upon women in both professional and amateur photography today. Using photography as a microcosm, this paper demonstrates that these gender labels are the manifestation and communication of social systems that govern gender norms and expectations of women in Japanese society. It will highlight the presence of these labels across a wide range of sectors in photography, the gender stereotypes that are communicated, and women’s interactions with these labels. Crucially, this paper explores how these interactions are far more nuanced and complex than they first appear. As this paper ultimately argues, women actively engage with, rather than passively accept, gender labels, be it as a vehicle to present their art and form photography communities, or to challenge the very gender systems that produce them.