Chieko Shiraishi: The Shadow of the Islands
From February 6 to April 18, 2026, we are pleased to present Shimakage (Shadow of the Islands) by Chieko Shiraishi, a body of work that unfolds as both a geographical and introspective journey. Through these images, the artist explores the fragile territory of memory, where personal recollections merge with landscapes and fleeting impressions.
A contemporary Japanese photographer known for her mastery of silver gelatin printing, Shiraishi is an artist whose work we have followed closely for several years.
Her photographs were received with great enthusiasm during their presentation at Paris Photo. Traveling across the many islands that form the Japanese archipelago, Shiraishi creates images that move between observation and dream. Landscapes, figures, and animals appear suspended in a quiet atmosphere where memory softens reality and time seems to dissolve precise boundaries.
To achieve this distinctive visual language, Shiraishi employs the technique known as zokin-gake (“wiping with a cloth”). After printing, she intervenes directly on the surface of the photograph, applying and then partially removing pigment. Through this process of gesture and erasure, the images acquire a tactile, painterly quality that enhances their dreamlike presence.
Her photographs thus become spaces of introspection, where wonder, shadow, and uncertainty coexist.
About the Author
Born in 1968 in Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Chieko Shiraishi represents a distinctive voice in contemporary Japanese photography.
She studied under the photographers Katsuhito Nakazato and Kazuo Kitai, where she discovered the possibilities of the darkroom and developed a refined mastery of silver gelatin printing. For Shiraishi, technical skill is never an end in itself but rather a means of expressing a deeply personal and emotional perception of the world.
Her practice often extends beyond traditional photographic processes. By intervening directly on the surface of her prints—sometimes with a brush, sometimes with the trace of a cloth, and sometimes through subtle blending—she transforms each photograph into a unique object. Drawing on traditional and occasionally forgotten techniques, Shiraishi gives her images an unusual material presence. Her work moves between photography and painting, between visibility and disappearance. In this delicate space, reality becomes vision, and the captured moment acquires a quiet, almost meditative beauty.
Since 1998, she has presented more than twenty solo exhibitions in galleries across Japan, Italy, France, and South Korea. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, the Higashikawa City Cultural Center, the Ashikaga Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).
She has published several monographs, including Saboten to Shippo (Cactus and Tail) in 2008, Shimakage (Shadow of the Islands) in 2015, and Shikawatari (The Crossing of the Deer) in 2020. For this last publication she received the 37th Higashikawa Special Prize in 2021. In 2023 she was awarded the prestigious Hariban Award, which led to the publication of a collotype portfolio of Shimakage by Atelier Benrido in Kyoto.
Her work will be exhibited at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 2026. A second collotype portfolio produced by Atelier Benrido is also scheduled for publication in early 2026.
Chieko Shiraishi: The Shadow of the Islands
until April 18, 2026
Galerie Echo 119 – Paris – France
