Saori Baba

Lives and works in Fukuoka, Japan

Artist statement

Artist Statement My photographic practice begins with lived experience and explores the body, gender, memory, and the relationships we form with others and with society. In 2014, at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. During treatment, my body became something repeatedly observed, examined, and interpreted by others. At the same time, I began photographing myself. This experience became the starting point for my ongoing series The View Through My Blood. The work has continued for more than a decade because, for me, cancer is not an experience with a clearly defined ending. My body continues to change, as does the way I understand life, mortality, sexuality, and time. My practice later expanded from self-portraiture toward the lives of others. Through portraits and long-term encounters, I examine gender roles, family structures, intimacy, and the distance between how people are seen by society and how they understand themselves. Living and working in Taiwan for several years further changed my relationship with photography. Migration, cultural difference, everyday encounters, and accumulated memories became increasingly central to my work. More recently, I have expanded photography beyond the framed image into spatial installations. In Photo HENRO Project – The Eternal Return of Memory 2025, photographs printed on transparent film form an environment through which viewers physically move. For me, photography is not simply a means of recording what I see. It...

Artwork