What we inherit is an artistic exploration of legacy, culture, and tradition through my Japanese heritage. Using kimonos and scrapbooks that my grandparents left behind from the 1930s-60s, the photographic montages represent a family’s memories and emotions that have been passed down, but are also slowly fading.
My grandmother, a lover of luxury despite the family’s financial struggles, continued to commission exquisite kimonos in post-war Japan. Many were crafted from fine silk and adorned with intricate embroidery. It was perhaps her means of self-expression or how she defined her place in society. Forty years after her passing, what is left of her inheritance has traveled with me to America.
My grandfather, a television producer in Japan’s early broadcast era, was a devoted documentarian of his own life. His meticulously compiled scrapbooks, with photographs of himself and his family, reveal glimpses of a rapidly modernizing society. Though he passed away years before I was born, his visual records have handed down pieces of his life to me.
My image-making process involves photographing kimonos during kageboshi, a tradition of airing out the delicate fabric during the dry months. The garments are photographed in natural light, then merged with scanned archival photographs. By bridging the past and present, this project seeks to preserve one’s tangible history, and reimagine its place in today’s digital culture.
Artist Bios
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Aiko Wakao Austin
Aiko Wakao Austin is a Japanese photographer and translator living in New York. Born in Tokyo, she spent her childhood in Italy and studied International Relations at Brown University. Earlier in her career, she worked as a journalist in Japan, and later in finance. She moved to New York in 2016 and began photographing professionally and working as a translator. Reflecting her multicultural upbringing, her personal projects explore the concept of identity, family, and culture. Her work was selected for the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards in 2023 and 2024.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
What we inherit
Featuring: Aiko Wakao Austin
Locations
View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
