"One Breath Away from Mother Oceania": The Underwater Photography of Tomohide Ikeya

This line from Björk's Oceania comes to mind when you look at the series of underwater photographs Breath by the Japanese artist Tomohide Ikeya, who also works in fashion and advertising. While Björk means the briefness of human history, Ikeya shows the briefness of human life, always one breath away from death.

Fig. 1. Tomohide Ikeya (tcp.ac.jp)

Fig. 2. Breath (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Fig. 3. Breath (Instagram.com)

Fig. 4. Breath (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Fig. 5. Instagram.com

Guided by Nobuyoshi Araki and Hokusai

Tomohide Ikeya (b. 1974) isn't a "natural-born" photographer: before his artistic career, he had been working as a chef at an Italian restaurant for eight years. It was his unusual hobby that provoked his interest in photography. An avid diver, Ikeya often explored the depths with a group of professional underwater photographers and eventually thought that becoming an underwater photographer would allow him to explore the oceans around the world. So thought, so done: in the early 2000s, Ikeya quit his job at the restaurant and enrolled at the Tokyo College of Photography. After graduation, the artist worked as an assistant at the commercial studio of Katsuji Takasaki. A year later, he became a freelancer contributing to fashion magazines. The defining point was meeting with Nobuyoshi Araki, to whom Ikeya showed some of his works. Araki warned him against the approach he saw in these fashion photos, which motivated Ikeya to change the subject completely. The result was his Wave series focused on the thing he always loved. The water would become a constant environment of his works. Apparently, that's why among his inspirations, Ikeya mentions Hokusai, the creator of the iconic Great Wave Off Kanagawa. 

Fig. 6. Wave. Glass, wood panels, acrylic paint (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Fig. 7. Wave (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Fig. 8. Wave (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Fig. 9. Wave (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Seeing Beauty in the Struggle

As Ikeya says, "Perhaps the essence of life, granted to everyone, is to live while struggling against death... Life is not just about visible beauty, but also about true strength, which we have from birth." Ikeya's career also has an element of struggle, which lies not only in the process of taking photos in pretty extreme conditions. Like many creators, Ikeya had to overcome the initial reluctance of the professional community. In fact, his Wave series wasn't welcomed in Japan, so Ikeya submitted this work to the International Photo Awards in 2007 and received 1st place. While submitting Wave to the international competition, Ikeya asked Epson Service for a larger print of his work and was invited to exhibit it at the Epson Gallery. By 2013, Ikeya had held several exhibitions abroad and opened his seminar at the Tokyo College of Photography. His last solo exhibition was held at the Masayoshi Suzuki Gallery in 2022. Nowadays, Ikeya is a winner of several prestigious photo competitions and is welcomed both in Japan and abroad.

Fig. 10. Breath (tomohide-ikeya.com)

Fig. 11. Breath (tomohide-ikeya.com)

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Click HERE for the underwater nudes in the photography of Pavlo Protsenko

Sources: Interview with Tomohide Ikeya by Iki Morita at the site of Tokyo College of Photography (tcp.ac.jp/interview/ikeyatomohide/); Interview with Tomohide Ikeya for the FotoNostrum magazine, 2021, no. 15 (tomohide-ikeya.com/featured-artticles); official site: tomohide-ikeya.com; Instagram: instagram.com/tomohideikeya/