All images ©Keiko Hiromi
I was thrilled to get wind of these images from Keiko Hiromi, the strength and quality of which show great promise.
Keiko Hiromi is a photographer living in Dorchester, MA. She came from Japan to study in Boston 9 years ago. She graduated from New England School of Photography in 2005 and since then has been working on her series Monadnock Street, photographs of inner city Afro-Caribbean youth living life in her locality, Dorchester, MA. She has won many awards for this body of work, including Griffin Museum (Winchester, MA) and Project Basho (Philadelphia, PA) Emerging Artists Awards and has had it exhibited at many venues across America. Besides this excellent project, she has been currently working on another documentary story about the Religious community Twelve Tribe in Dorchester, MA since April 2008.
"My photography is always coming from a non-American point of view. Being Japanese, Photography has let me experience culture shock, led me to, at least, grasp my understanding of life, people and humanity. American life I photograph is much of a departure from the way I grew-up in Japan. Yet, I find myself feeling sentimental. I find myself connected to my subjects. These photographs are my testimony and experience of American society, culture and everyday life."Hiromi represents an international vision. The impact of her work is evidence of how art can transcend cultural references without losing any of its specificity, or indeed, its power.
