Already having travelled to Lithuania, Germany, Uzbekistan, Italy, Egypt, Latvia, Jordan, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, Gazing at the Contemporary World: Japanese Photography from the 1970s to the Present will turn Sydney’s Japan Foundation Gallery into its new home from 22 February – 4 March.

Curated by Rei Masuda, Chief Curator of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, it features 76 photographs showing a panoramic view of Japan’s changing landscape since the 1970s. Twenty-three internationally renowned Japanese photographers including Nobuyoshi Araki, Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama are among the big names, with stills that capture the changes that have occurred over the past 30 years.

Gazing at the Contemporary World: Japanese Photography from the 1970s to the Present is composed of two sections. The first section looks at “A Changing Society”, focusing on human beings as members of society, while the latter half concentrates on “Changing Landscapes”, of cities, the suburbs, nature and the like. 

“The concern of this exhibition is to present a synthesis of things that arise from the group of images selected through the tentatively established categories of figure and landscape, to highlight the condition of the age and the state of the photographers’ gaze,” states Masuda. 

Gazing at the Contemporary World: Japanese Photography from the 1970s to the Present captures the key changes that took place in Japan between the period of rapid economic growth, the bubble economy, economic stagnation, the rise of consumerism, the information revolution, population growth, and the loss of traditional communities.

This exhibition opens 22 February and concludes 4 March, heading to SOFA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand, as its next destination.