Until the 1990s, Japan’s photography scene was a man’s world. Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Masatoshi Naitō were just some of the names that dominated this art form. Their art showcased subjects confined by the male gaze. During this era, photography was shot through a lens of artistic rules and boundaries, which omitted subjects relevant to femininity. That was until Hiromix.
Hiromi Toshikawa, known as Hiromix, grew up in Tokyo during the 80s. In 1995, at just 17 years old, she submitted a collection of photos titled “Seventeen Girl Days” to the Canon’s New Cosmos of Photography awards. From underwear to flowers to the corner of her TV stand, each image was saturated with the rawness of everyday life. Her photographs captured intimacy: what it felt like to see the world with curiosity and dread through a teenage girl. Her off-kilter composition, intense colors and slight overexposure made the images feel spontaneous and unpolished. This series caught the attention of the judges, who described “Seventeen Girl Days” as a collection that “holds nothing back” and captures the“ precocious mysteriousness of late teens.” Hiromix ultimately won first place. This win sparked the beginning of Hiromix’s career.. She continued to document the small mundane moments of being of girlhood: staring at yourself in the mirror, wearing baby tees and having picnics with your friends. Following her debut, publications like “Girls Blue” and “Hiromix” began to take off, as well as works from other female photographers like Yurie Nagashima and Mika Ninagawa. This era of photography earned the name Onna No Ko Shashin, or “girly photography,” bringing an avant-garde edge to Japan’s artistic scene. Sparking a new movement of femininity across Japan. The movement brought newfound girls’ perspectives to light. It even inspired works like “Lost in Translation” by Sofia Coppola. This transition turned a page for women in the ‘90s and 2000s. But how does the “girly movement” of photography bleed into today – almost 30 years later?
If you scroll through a girl’s Instagram or VSCO, you’re bound to find a curated collection of vacation photos, sunsets and mirror selfies with friends. Each image might be nearly identical to hundreds more in her camera roll, but on her Instagram feed is the perfect one. Together, these photos create a mosaic of a girl’s idyllic life. This standard sits adjacent to the photography culture that came before.Show your world through a narrow lens and keep the authenticity hidden. Social media created a new platform for the male gaze paradigm. Today, girls’ feeds reflect the perfectionist standards held to girls themselves. It’s almost as if they’re a portrait of what someone else would capture.
Nevertheless, a girl’s authenticity always finds a way to emerge via somewhere else. Just as Hiromix had her photography, girls today have their finstas. Screenshots, cooking fiascos, blurry selfies – these are what comprise a girl’s fake Instagram, or finsta. Also known as spams, these accounts bring the candidness of girlhood much like “Seventeen Girl Days.” They’re held in close rings, hidden away from public judgement. And while they remain underground, they capture the vitality of girlhood. They hold memories that often sit closest to us, they’re snapshots from your breakdown the night before your graduation or when you woke up to your best friend drooling on the couch. This is the reality of what it’s like being a girl: disorderly and defiant. Behind a perfect Instagram is a girl who loves to make a fool of herself – just on another account.
While it’s disappointing to see that a girls’ youthfulness has again become tucked away from the limelight, there is some relief in knowing that it’s still flourishing. Thankfully, media like scrapbooks, digicam footage and polaroids act as other channels for keeping girlhood alive and real. And for social media, with its rapidly evolving landscape, maybe someday there will once more be a public sphere where it’s normalized for women to showcase their livelihoods.