Mayumi Suzuki grew up in a family that was deeply immersed in photography for generations. This connection can be felt in her work: the belief, and the knowledge, that photography can help individuals and societies express themselves and free themselves. Her last series, ‘Restoration Will,’ about her family in the aftermaths of the 2011 Tohoku devastation, was very personal and deeply moving. This new series, ‘HOJO,’ is just as much, in a different way: she brings us even closer, using the medium to create intimate narratives inspired by her current experience, that is with her own body. Mayumi Suzuki started working on this series, ‘HOJO’ (‘Fertility’), in 2020, just after she gave up on treatment to cure her infertility. When she saw the unsold vegetables lined up in the markets — the forked carrots and daikon deformed in various ways — she started photographing them along with portraits of herself, feeling she had something in common with them for giving up on her fertility. This series is an account of her experience, through photographs, sonograms, and other imagery, that allows her to share her journey through the complex promises of a woman’s body. The stark contrast between the red and the black and white talks to the intensity of the struggle between the body and the mind. - Mayumi Suzuki Born in Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture 1977, graduated from the photography department at the Nihon University College of Art. A visual storyteller, Mayumi Suzuki creates works based on personal stories. She grew up in a family that ran a photo studio founded by her grandfather in 1930, and at the age of 18 began studying in the Department of Photography of Nihon University College of Art. After graduating, she worked as a freelance photographer, focusing on portraits. The Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011. Suzuki’s hometown of Onagawa was destroyed by the tsunami and her parents lost their lives. Since that time, she has frequently returned to her hometown to record the efforts of people in the area to move forward from the disaster. Since 2020, she has been working on her new project “Hōjō” (fertility), which portrays her experience going through infertility treatment. Her The Restoration Will, self-published in 2017, has been highly acclaimed, receiving, among other awards, the Photobox Grand Prix (Italy) and the 2018 PHOTO ESPANA International Division Best Photobook of the Year (Spain). An up-and-coming Japanese artist, her work “Twilight Daylight” (Japanese title: “Ashita no hikari”) was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2020.