ABOUT

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, renowned Japanese war photographer Akihiko Okamura (1929-1985) created a remarkable, compelling and largely unseen body of work in Ireland, north and south. After covering the Vietnam War, Okamura went to Ireland in 1968 and soon after, in 1969, he decided to move to Ireland with his family. From then on, he continually photographed the Troubles in the North and his life with his family in the South, until he suddenly passed away, in 1985.

His photographs of Ireland, which have barely been seen before, demonstrate a unique artistic vision. His profound, personal relationship with Ireland allowed him to develop a new method of documenting conflict: poetic and ethereal moments of peace in a time of war.

Akihiko-Okamura-photographed-by-Meiji-Fujikura-in-1965

latest news

Winner of the Special Mention Award at Arles Photo Fair 2024

NOMINATED FOR PHOTOBOOK OF THE YEAR AT PARIS PHOTO FAIR 2024

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX NADAR 2024

Official selection for the Galway Film Fleadh 2024

WORLD PREMIERE EXHIBITION AT PHOTO MUSEUM IRELAND

RTE INTERVIEW ON THE EXHIBITION

MEDIA

Akihiko Okamura, a Japanese witness to a torn Ireland by Claire Guillot, Le Monde, 13 October 2024
‘The surreal dislocation of the everyday’: how Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura captured the Troubles as never before by Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian, 7 April 2024
In Pictures: The Troubles through the lens of a Japanese war photographer by Glen Murphy, The Irish Times, 11 April 2024
Akihiko Okamura’s Outsider View of Northern Ireland by Declan Long, Aperture, 26 June 2024
Derry via Tokyo: How an outsider captured the Troubles in colour by Mark Durden, British Journal of Photography, 9 June 2024
The Disrupted Everyday: Sean O’Hagan on Akihiko Okamura’s Irish photos by Sean O’Hagan, RTE Culture, 16 April 2024
Japanese war photographer who documented Ireland’s Troubles by Mark O’Sullivan Vallig, Irish Examiner, 15 April 2024

DOCUMENTARY

The Memories of Others

Directed by Pauline Vermare and Marc Lesser
Produced by Lucky Tiger Productions, New York, 2024, 20mn

Featuring interviews with Tom Burke, Sean O’Hagan, Anthony Haughey, Rihito Kimura, Trish Lambe, Kusi Okamura, and Masako Toda. Music by Crash Ensemble and Louth Contemporary Music Society.

Film Premiere: 8.30 pm on Thursday 11 April in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar

PHOTOBOOK

A new photobook published by acclaimed publishers Atelier EXB (co-published in English by Prestel), edited by Pauline Vermare, in collaboration with the Akihiko Okamura Archive and Photo Museum Ireland, brings together for the first time the images taken by Akihiko Okamura in Ireland. It accompanies the exhibition on view at Dublin’s Photo Museum Ireland (April-June 2024).

Several texts accompany the photos in this photobook, with essays by Pauline Vermare, Masako Toda, Seán O’Hagan and texts by Kusi Okamura and Trish Lambe.

GALLERY

Street memorial on Lecky Road, Derry city, marking the site where Desmond Beattie (19 years old) was shot and killed on 8 July 1971 by the British Army. Seamus Cusack (28 years old) was shot dead near this spot twelve hours later. These men were the first people shot dead by the British Army in Derry, Northern Ireland, 1971

Burning building, Derry city, Northern Ireland, c. 1969

Women in the snow, South Dublin, c. 1970s

"Eleventh Night' bonfires in advance of the Twelth of July commemorations, Derry City, N. Ireland, c. 1969

Politician and activist Bernadette Devlin addresses a crowd during the Battle of the Bogside, a three-day riot in Derry City, N. Ireland in 1969 which saw the people of the Bogside area erect barricades to prevent the RUC entering.

Young bandmember at a Twelfth of July parade, Derry city, Northern Ireland, c. 1969

RUC Policemen riot gear, Derry City, N. Ireland, c. 1969

Children preparing an effigy of Lt Col Robert Lundy, Derry city, Northern Ireland, 1970s. Lundy was Governor of Derry reviled by Ulster loyalism as a traitor during the Siege of Derry in 1688. An effigy of Lundy is burnt at the end of the annual Apprentice Boys’ Parade in August in Derry, c. 1969

Fountain Street, Derry city, Northern Ireland, c. 1969

Local women standing near their burnt-out homes, Bombay Street, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1969

Milk bottles on doorstep, Ireland, 1970s

Women crossing through British Army barricade, Northern Ireland, c. 1969

Man on railway platform, Antrim train station, Northern Ireland, 1970s

Man with injured foot on the train reading The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsythe, Northern Ireland, 1976. Double-page spread of the article 'Brief Report from Ireland', text and photographs by Okamura, Playboy (Japan), 1976

Preparations for the Twelfth of July celebrations in the Fountain, Derry, N. Ireland, c. 1969. The 'Twelft'h is an annual commemoration of the victory of Protestant King William over the British Catholic monarch King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1689.

The website was made in collaboration with the Estate of Akihiko Okamura, Hakodate, Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin, Atelier EXB, Paris, and Lucky Tiger Productions, New York.

ABOUT

latest news

MEDIA

DOCUMENTARY

The Memories of Others

PHOTOBOOK

GALLERY

The website was made in collaboration with the Estate of Akihiko Okamura, Hakodate, Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin, Atelier EXB, Paris, and Lucky Tiger Productions, New York.

Special thanks to photography historian and curator Pauline Vermare.

All rights of the photographs reserved by the Estate of Akihiko Okamura

Webdesign by Kusi Okamura

Send queries to contact@akihiko-okamura.ie