Miyako Ishiuchi is one of Japan¡¯s most formidable photographers ¡ª a woman who has been passionately interested in women and their bodies for the whole of her 50-year career. At 68 years old, her fascination with the female physique remains intact, but over the past six years she has added two subtexts to her work: death and memory.
Ishiuchi¡¯s interest has shifted from photographing women¡¯s bodies to depicting their posthumous lives through personal effects. Her photo book of images showing the belongings of the victims of Hiroshima¡¯s nuclear bombing, ¡°Hiroshima Strings of Time,¡± inspired Linda Hoaglund¡¯s 2012 documentary, ¡°Things Left Behind.¡±
Now Ishiuchi¡¯s work has become the basis for another documentary: Tadasuke Kotani¡¯s ¡°Frida Kahlo no Ihin¡± (¡°The Legacy of Frida Kahlo¡°). This film shows Ishiuchi¡¯s working process as she inspects and photographs Frida Kahlo¡¯s belongings, including a collection of gorgeous, elaborately embroidered dresses. Other things are poignant reminders of Kahlo¡¯s physical condition: shoes with heels of differing height (Kahlo contracted polio in childhood, which left one leg longer than the other), or plaster corsets (at 18, a horrible bus accident shattered her pelvis and spinal column).
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