Beginning with her series Red Flower, Mao Ishikawa’s work with photography has produced intimate images of people navigating complex political realities. On the occasion of Ishikawa’s inclusion in Whitney Biennial 2026, this conversation brings together scholars and curators to consider Ishikawa’s innovative work in the context of postwar Okinawa, her reception in the U.S., and broader histories of photography in both Japan and the U.S.

Speakers

Joan Kee is the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU. She is an art historian whose scholarship examines how artists work within and against frameworks — historical, geopolitical, and legal — that challenge conventional ways of understanding. Her most recent book The Geometries of Afro Asia: Art Beyond Solidarity examines the relationships that formed between Black and Asian artists at critical historical junctures.

Yasufumi Nakamori curates exhibitions of and writes about global modern and contemporary art. A former Senior Curator of International Art at Tate, London (2018–2023), he most recently served as Director of the Asia Society Museum in New York City. His numerous exhibitions include Okinawa Soul: Photographs by Ishikawa Mao(2006, John Hartell Gallery, Cornell), For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography 1968- 1979 (2015, MFA Houston), and Zanele Muholi(2021, Tate).

Miwa Susuda is a Japanese writer, educator and consultant with over two decades of experience in photography and publishing. She is the founder of Session Press, an independent photobook publisher committed to amplifying underrepresented voices from East Asia, particularly Japan and China, by publishing both contemporary and historical works from emerging and established photographers.

Pauline Vermare is the Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum and a co-curator of I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now, a travelling exhibition organized by Aperture.

Drew Sawyer is the Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney. He co-curated Whitney Biennial 2026 with Marcela Guerrero, DeMartini Family Curator.