We are Made of Grass, Soil, and Trees

Ayaka Yamamoto is a photographer who explores the invisible layers embedded in the human body—memory, latent states, and conditions that precede articulation—and how these emerge as images.
Working in places where traces of history and memory remain present—such as Estonia, Russia, Malawi, Georgia, and Okinawa—Yamamoto develops her practice through encounters with people she meets there. This exhibition presents portrait works created between 2012 and 2023 during extended stays in culturally and linguistically unfamiliar environments. Attentive to subtle shifts in the body arising through light, distance, and silence, her work unfolds over time, revealing moments of fluid relationality between photographer and subject.
Before photographing, Yamamoto poses questions—not to gather information, but to engage with what one believes in and what shapes one’s being. These responses do not necessarily appear in language, but gradually emerge within the image itself. Garments are sourced locally, and both subjects and locations are determined through on-site encounters. Rather than relying on verbal communication, relationships are formed through tone, gesture, and shared time. Distanced from their everyday roles, the figures are not fixed within specific identities but appear as open presences.
All works are shot on film and hand-printed in the darkroom. The slight instability inherent in this process prevents the image from becoming fully fixed. In recent works, Yamamoto has also turned her attention to the landscapes and atmospheres surrounding the portraits, approaching the human body as a site that resonates with the accumulated memory of place.
The title We are Made of Grass, Soil, and Trees is inspired by Ainu mythology. Through her experiences in places where the distance between humans and nature remains close, Yamamoto explores pre-linguistic sensibilities and the primordial forms of perception embedded in the body.
This exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the possibilities of photography at the threshold where body and land intersect.