Tomio Seike

Tomio Seike was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1943. After graduating from The Japanese Photographic Academy in 1970, Seike became an assistant photographer for four years. He then went on to work freelance in fashion and portraiture, before moving to England. Seike has now moved back to his native country and continues to print his works in Japan. 

Seike is primarily known for his black and white photographs handprinted in Japan, though he has also made landscapes in colour. His sensitive play on light and composition adds a serenity to his images which defines his style and adds a beauty to scenes of everyday life. 

Indeed, by expertly balancing between the abstract and traditional, using only natural light, he manages to capture the quiet moments in life most people fail to notice. Seike is a master at capturing the quiet moments in life that silently pass, the often missed quotidian moments. The exquisite small format works further highlight the intimacy of the scenes he captures through their format, forcing the viewer to get up close to absorb every detail. 

Towards the end of the eighties when Seike completed his first series of nudes, exhibited at Hamiltons in 1989, he decided to extend the series - shooting in Paris and the UK - and experimenting predominantly with abstraction and size.

Seike’s photography are widely recognised and feature in numerous international collections. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, Japan and America, and resides in a number of private and public collections including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Tate Modern, London and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris amongst others.