Ichio Usui

Profile
He graduated from the Japan Institute of Photography and Film.
In 2017, while working full-time, he attended photography school. Upon graduation, he began pursuing photography in earnest.
Using photography as his primary medium, he creates works exploring the themes of “life and death” and “the cycle of life.”
His earliest memory, which remains vivid, is the death of his maternal great-grandmother when he was two years old.
He recalls watching the smoke rise silently from the crematorium chimney and feeling that “people eventually become smoke and disappear.”
This formative experience sparked a lifelong quest to understand the questions: “What is life? What is death?”
This exploration has profoundly influenced the recurring themes in his work.
Together with his wife, Chika Usui, he creates collaborative works under the name ‘Chika & Ichio Usui,’ exhibiting in Japan and internationally.
Selected Awards
2019 KYOTOGRAPHIE : Paris Gallery First Floor Award, Selected as KG+SELECT 12 Artists
2018 International Photography Awards : 3rd Place [Professional]
2018 Fine Art Photography Awards : 2nd Place
2017 Tokyo International Foto Awards : Gold [Professional] x2, Silver [Professional]
2017 International Photography Awards : 1st Place x3, 2nd Place
2017 Prix de la Photographie, Paris : Silver x2, Bronze
2017 Moscow International Foto Awards : 3rd Place
2016 ONAEBA vol.19 : Reviewer Award [Selected by Haruhisa Yamaguchi]
2016 Tokyo International Foto Awards : Gold
…etc
Selected Group Exhibitions & Art Fair
2022 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, Somerset House, London
2019 KG+ IN TOKYO, Art-U room, Tokyo
2019 fotofever, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
2019 Wonder Foto Day, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Taiwan
2018 Ashiya Photographic Exhibition, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe
2018 TIFA Winners Exhibition, ICA Space, Tokyo
2018 Px3 Winners Exhibition, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris
2018 MIFA Exhibition Minsk, Artel Gallery Minsk, Belarus
2017 Yume no saki Project, 72Gallery, Tokyo
2017 Japan Institute of Photography and Film Selection Exhibition, Fujifilm photo salon, Osaka
2017 Japan Institute of Photography and Film Selection Exhibition, Nikon salon, Osaka
…etc
Solo Exhibitions
2019 “運命共同体 – Communities bound together by a common destiny -“, BERGONZO FIRST FLOOR, Paris
2019 “運命共同体 – Communities bound together by a common destiny -“, former Junpu Elementary School [KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+SELECT], Kyoto
2015 “The Miracles…”, Wide Gallery&Studio, Kobe
Publications
2022 The Guardian [Web]
2020 “運命共同体 – Communities bound together by a common destiny -”, AVGI, New York
2018 IPA Book 2018
2018 El Pais Semanal
2017 IPA Book 2017
2017 PX3 Book 2017
2016 PhatPhoto Vol.97