Kyotographie’s exhibition at this year’s Rencontres d’Arles photography festival brings together two Japanese women photographers from different generations, each making work from the material of their real lives. From Our Windows, a dual exhibition between artists Rinko Kawauchi and Tokuko Ushioda, unites the practices of two eminent image-makers with very different approaches, yet motivated by the same desire to preserve so-called ordinary moments. And, as the title suggests, it celebrates their unique vantage points on the world around them.

Kawauchi (1972) is known and beloved for her poetic, serene photographs of fleeting moments – the iridescent, gossamer-thin surface of a bubble, the petals of a flower backlit by a particularly beautiful ray of sunlight, a child running in joy. Her pictures are Earth-bound in their subject matter, but ethereal and otherworldly in their colour palette of sunlit pastels. Often carrying her camera, she reaches for it when she encounters “something fragile” she feels compelled to capture. In a tour of the exhibition, she explains, “We can’t stop life, we can’t press pause, but photography can. Photography allows us to think about the past moments, to reflect.”

From Our Windows features a relatively small but exquisite selection of Kawauchi’s photographs, some of which are traditionally framed and hung on the walls, some of which are printed on semi-translucent fabric and hung in the centre of Vague Arles’ arched stone roof. How does she begin to select which images to include? “I follow my intuition,” she explains. “I choose one picture – the first picture – and then that picture brings the next one. It’s like solving a puzzle.” I suggest this process of sequencing is like writing a story, without the necessity of a narrative but a pleasing interplay of shape and colour. “Yes, right,” she agrees. “Like making a patchwork.” 

The show pairs portraits of her daughter’s early life with poetic texts, alongside Cui Cui, a slideshow of family photographs from 13 years. “Revisiting these pictures, I notice things I’d never seen before,” she says. “Like sometimes I recognise it was such a beautiful time. Or I feel I miss those days.” Spending time among pictures of Kawauchi’s family and watching her daughter change and grow in the slideshow, I can’t help but tune into an ambient nostalgia permeating the work. Does photography serve to preserve and honour our memories? Or does it also induce and amplify our nostalgia? 

Asked by Kyotographie to suggest another photographer whom she would like to display her work alongside, Kawauchi chose Tokuko Ushioda (1940), a revered photographer who also turned her camera on the objects, landscapes and people around her. From Our Windows features pictures from two bodies of work by this prolific photographer, My Husband (1978-1985) and Ice Box (1981-ongoing). 

My Husband, as the title suggests, is a series of portraits of the artist’s partner – photographer Shinzō Shimao, who reappears throughout as a charismatic, smouldering presence. Ice Box (1981-ongoing) is a series of black-and-white portraits of refrigerators. What sounds like a mundane object we almost don’t even notice in our own home is recast by Ushioda as a pivotal object. She says, “I decided to show ice boxes because they are centred in our lives; it’s common, really internationally –  we all eat. The contents of our fridge are very revealing. It provides so many clues as to how we live.” 

While she approached each photo session for this series in a dispassionate, documentary style – shooting straight-on with her tripod on a six-by-six camera – and there’s a certain uniformity to the pictures, they are nevertheless emotional. Each one gives us a unique glimpse into a home – we see the food inside, or the pictures and magnets on the fridge door; we see the detritus and objects surrounding the fridge – the chaos of family life. The fridge becomes another window into the worlds of other people. “When I ask people if they allow me to photograph their fridges, they often prepare by tidying inside,” she explains. “But they forget everything around the edges – the slippers and the belongings. It is always interesting.” 

“As a woman photographer, I feel so much respect for Ushioda,” says Kawauchi. “The subject we are focusing on is quite similar: little things in daily life.” Despite their different approaches and aesthetics, despite working in different generations, the overarching quality that makes Rinko Kawauchi and Tokuko Ushioda such an interesting pairing is the pervading sense that each photographer is driven by relentless curiosity. “There’s always a camera inside my head, capturing my daily life naturally,” says Ushioda. Their mutual focus isn’t necessarily on so-called heroic topics; they make their images from the material around them. But, as this exhibition makes clear, what Kawauchi describes as “little things” – be it the way the morning light catches a spider’s web, an act of care, or simply walking together among trees – are the precious details that deserve to be heroised. 

From Our Windows by Rinko Kawauchi and Tokuko Ushioda is presented by Kyotographie at Les Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles and is running at Vague until 20 September 2026.