明子(アキラケイコ)は日本で生まれた。日本の第４都市で、育った明子は、自然とは遠い環境であった。幼少期から童話に親しみ、空想に耽る少女であった。

 

教員職であった明子は、２００１年、アメリカ　サウスダコタ州に日本文化を伝える教師として、ネイティブアメリカン居住区が近い村に派遣される。大きな自然を讃えるネイティブアメリカンの文化の美しさに魅了される。大きな空と彼らの信条を重ね合わせ、空想に耽った。この経験がのちに、彼女の作品の源となる。彼らを写真で撮ってみたい。その思いから写真家として活動を始める。こうぞの木から紙を作り、青写真と融合した作品は、どこか暖かさも感じられ、懐かしい気持ちにさせられる。

 

 

Akirakeiko was born in the fourth largest city in Japan where she was surrounded by buildings and far from nature. As a child, she enjoyed a fairly-tale reality and often daydreamed about fantasy.

She was a member of the art club in her adolescence and dreamed of becoming a cartoonist.

 

Akirakeiko had an opportunity to be dispatched as an exchange teacher to South Dakota in America in a rural town located near a Native American reservation. She was mesmerized by Native American culture.

 

At night she looked up to the millions of stars and dreamed about their creed.These experiences are inspiration for her work. Her photography journey began with her ambition to take photos Native American culture.

 

In her most significant work, she makes Japanese paper called Washi from scratch and develops cyanotype print on them.

Within her worlds, surrealism is a glimpse of a vivid imagination awakening, revealing an alluring story waiting to be told.