OKINAWA
On the southern tip of Japan, Okinawa is an archipelago that floats in the beautiful ocean. In ancient times, seafarers plied the oceans to Japan and other countries, while a unique island culture flourished. However, Okinawa did not escape the wave of modernity that washed over the islands. Many lives were lost during World War II. Okinawa was ruled by the USA for 27 years and huge US military bases still dot the landscape. For hundreds of years, generations of my maternal ancestors were born, raised and died on these islands. My spirit gravitates toward this archipelago. I want to live in the present and capture the Okinawa that lies before me today.

Keiko Nomura (Kobe, Japan) studied photography in Los Angeles and graduated from Visual Arts College Osaka. She has published 6 books. Nomura received the Newcomer’s Award from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1999 and New Photographer Prize at the 16th Higashikawa International Photography Festival in 2000 and has been exhibiting regularly in Japan in the last years.  Women and water have been the motifs in her overarching theme of life’s infinite cycle beyond time and space. 

Okinawa is Nomura´s second book with PVK editions, following the critically acclaimed, now sold out Drop of Light to Rushing Water.