Michiko Chiyoda majored in graphic design at the university and learned photography at the same time. After graduating, she got a job as a designer at an advertising agency, and changed the job to the advertising and the public relations of the optical manufacturer. Then, she seriously started making photography artworks.
Her creating process is like a journey through the world she happened to fall in love with at the moment. And the journey is triggered by her memories, sentiments, thirstiness, or ambivalences deep inside of her. She feels, learns, and experiences the world, and she extracts her inner face. During the journey, a word finds her and starts stimulating her creative juice to flow to tell a story to be shared through her work.
In addition to various solo and group exhibitions not only domestically but also overseas, she has had actual achievements to be adopted by web magazines, winning awards, and being collected by an art museum and a photo foundation.
I am ready to dream a dream with her
It is the story of my friend and myself.
In 2016, I took a role of a photographer to document an artist’s work who is a friend of mine living her life as a Christian in Hiroshima and creates beautiful flowers from fabric. Our collaboration resulted in a book published in 2018. Its theme was “prayer.” “Prayer means dialogue with him, and my flowers embody it,” she often said. She always seemed to be imperturbably calm, and I was mysteriously moved by that. Despite the fact she was fighting her illness, she still managed to continue with her work and always managed to be composed and at peace. I couldn’t help but to believe it is the prayer in the core of her mind. I visited Nagatsuka Monastery in Hiroshima which she was associated with, to understand and to know where her firm belief came from. I have to say that I could just find it hard for me. But when I came to feel my intention to keep creating works with her, no matter what the consequence of her illness, one thing came clear to me was that I could keep prayer in my mind for it as a dream. This work is my tribute to the artist whom I shared indescribably beautiful time with, and for the inspiration and motivation I will be forever given by her.
To view more of Michiko Chiyoda’s work please visit their website.