Rika Noguchi

Noguchi was born in Tokyo and has a degree in photography from the Department of Photography, College of Art at Nihon University in 1994.^[1][2][3] She has lived and worked as a photographer in Berlin, Germany between 2004 and 2016 and is currently based in Okinawa, Japan.^[3]

Noguchi focuses on photography of nature, with landscape sceneries and animals. Her frequent use of close-ups and blurred images create an aura of impressionism. Noguchi's work often deals with the limits of human ability and ambition. Her series "New Land" (1999-2000) documented the construction of artificial islands off the coast of the Netherlands.^[1] Her series "Rocket Hill" (begun in 2001) recorded the facilities and launch pad of Japan's Tanegashima Space Center.^[1] Her "Sun" series (begun in 2005) shot the sun using a pinhole camera, emphasizing a very Earth-bound perception of the solar body.^[1][4]

Early works include “A Prime” (1997),^[5] a series of landscape shots with lonely persons forming undefined foregrounds. She later made “Color of the Planet” (2004)^[6] and “In the Desert” (2007)^[7] depicting urban and natural landscapes, with colourful blurs and light reflections, inspiring a sense of distance to the subject. Recent works include “The Sun” (2005-2008),^[8] a series with the sun as a source of light through a pinhole camera. “I Dreamt of Flying 2” (2009) depicts warped images of the starry sky, the way we would perceive the stars looking out from a spacecraft travelling at the light of speed.^[2][8]