Still Life 04 by Miki Soejima

London-based artist Miki Soejima walks the line between fact and fiction, uncovering photography’s inherent artifice and truths. Her project, The Passenger’s Present, combines street photographs from Japan with constructed still life images, including her print, "Still Life 04". Her images allude to narratives, histories, and myths beneath Japanese society’s surface. Some images include small red spheres; these are Atomic FireBalls, the American candy named after the atomic bomb. “I think my core interest lies in how narrative context can shape our way of seeing the world and affect how we act,” she says.

Soejima’s work with photographs began after completing studies in Cultural Anthropology at Kyoto’s Ryukoku University, which included a year’s exchange at the University of Westminster. She then moved to London to study photography at the London College of Communication. Soejima received the 2012 First Book Award from MACK and the National Media Museum for Mrs. Merryman’s Collection, which MACK published in 2012. She has exhibited widely in Europe and the US, including Dublin’s PhotoIreland Festival, Barcelona’s Arts Santa Monica, and London’s Michael Hoppen Gallery. Soejima participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in 2015.