Jun Ishikura

Jun Ishikura is a photographer based in Yokohama, Japan.

His work explores the relationship between people, craft, memory, place, belief, and time. Through long-term documentary projects and conceptual photographic works, he is interested in how human beings create meaning through tools, spaces, rituals, technology, and everyday gestures.

Since 2012, he has been working on BLACKSMITHS, a long-term photographic project documenting blacksmiths, workshops, tools, and the culture of forging across many countries. The project developed from his earlier work Eesti Sepad, which focused on blacksmiths in Estonia, and has also been presented under the title Planet of the Blacksmiths.

His other projects include YOKOHAMA BARS, a long-running local project about bars and night culture in Yokohama; Midday Moon, a series exploring ambiguity, belief, and perception; and The Evolutionary History of Life, an installation-based photographic work about intelligence, technology, and the future of life.