AMSTERDAM.- Foam presents, in cooperation with Dutch photographer and curator Machiel Botman, the first European retrospective of Japanese photographer Miyako Ishiuchi (b. 1947).

While the artist brought attention to herself at Biennial 2005 in Venice with her collection Mother’s, the remainder of her work had not yet been presented collectively in Europe. Exhibited in Foam are ninety photographs from the series Yokosuka Story, Apartment, Endless Night, 1.9.4.7, 1906 to the Skin and Mother’s from the period 1976-2005. In conjunction, a book is being published by Manfred Heiting.

In several of the exhibited series, Miyako Ishiuchi pays tribute to the beauty of the human body. She notices the worn soles of the feet, telling life’s tale of her subject. Another important theme consists of empty houses, the abandoned interiors which reveal traces of human fates. Among other things, Ishiuchi’s work is interesting for the western viewer in its respect for age. She finds beauty in places where we typically would not look.

After Foam, the exhibition will travel the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London (November 2008- January 2009) and to La Filature, Scène national-Mulhouse.

The exhibition was organized and produced by Langhans Galerie Praha, a non-profit organization for the promotion of photography. The exhibition is accompanied by the book Miyako Ishiuchi, edited by Machiel Botman and published by Manfred Heiting, 2008.