三保谷将史 / Masashi Mihotani

Masashi Mihotani was born in Osaka, Japan in 1987. His major solo exhibitions include Images are for illustration purposes (2019, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo) and Look for an insect (2014, La galerie, Osaka). Group exhibitions include 2019 Dali International Photography Exhibition (2019, Dali, China), YPF exhibition 2019 (2019, galerie MONSTRE, Arles, France), Today is (2019, Sony Square Shibuya Project, Tokyo), NEW JAPAN PHOTO 7 LAUNCH EXHIBITION (2018, CHI-KA, Dubai, UAE), and New Project (2018, Higashikawa International Photo Festival, Hokkaido). In 2018, Mihotani received the “JAPAN PHOTO AWARD” (selected by Mutsuko Ota, Editorial Director of IMA), and in the same year, he was also shortlisted at the “HARIBAN AWARD 2018,”and “TOKYO FRONTLINE PHOTO AWARD”.

Education
2013-15
Visual Arts Osaka, Photography department, evening course.

Solo Exhibitions
2019
Images are for illustration purposes / KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo, Japan
2016
Images are for illustration purposes / ZAZIE hair, Osaka, Japan
2014
Look for an insect / La galerie, Osaka, Japan
2013
YANMA / Dining table of Hipotama, Osaka, Japan
2012
Look for an insect / Itohen, Osaka, Japan

Recently Selected group exhibitions
2019
Asama International Photo Festival / Nagano, Japan
2019
Dali International Photography Exhibition / Dali, China
2019
IMA×Edition “STYLED IN PHOTOGRAPHY” / IMA gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2019
YPF exhibition 2019 / galerie MONSTRE, Arles, France
2019
Today is / Tokyo, Japan
2019
NEW JAPAN PHOTO 7 LAUNCH EXHIBITION / CHI-KA, Dubai, UAE

Awards
2019
TOKYO FRONTLINE PHOTO AWARD #8, Finalist
2018
JAPAN PHOTO AWARD, Winner (Selected by Mutsuko Ota)
2018
HARIBAN AWARD, Shortlist

Publications
2019
CITYZINE magazine
2019
JAPAN PHOTO AWARD MAGAZINE
2019
NEW JAPAN PHOTO ISSUE 7 (back cover)
2018
IMA magazine vol.26 (Step out! vol.22)

I feel that my life-long passion for photography is underpinned by my childhood experiences with insects. For me, collecting insects has been a way to understand the strange and familiar, through first-hand experience, as well as from various perspectives through sharing with others. And this has cemented my fascination with the perception that arises when you see something for the first time in your life, and the source of the perception itself; these continue to be the foundation of my practice today. Through photography, I am trying to look at the everyday, familiar things around me, including the invisible presence that takes shape in our imagination when we feel something.