About 私たちについて

KYOTOGRAPHIE is an international photography festival based in Kyoto — a city that garners global attention as a centre of culture and the arts in Japan. Each spring the festival unfolds as an immersive celebration of photography. More than just an exhibition, KYOTOGRAPHIE offers unique experiences where traditional and contemporary expressions intersect. As a platform for encountering diverse worldviews, it fosters new forms of dialogue, and invites audiences to discover new perspectives on the city.

Unconstrained by conventional boundaries, KYOTOGRAPHIE is known for an innovative approach to scenography and thoughtful installations. The experiences crafted by the festival reshape conventional formats, connecting audiences with new ways of perceiving both the work and the spaces around them. It is a multifaceted experience that could have only emerged in Kyoto.

KYOTOGRAPHIE is about bringing people together, creating moments where difference is celebrated, and genres are encouraged to converge. As a space for the unexpected to emerge, the festival embraces possibilities : building, dismantling, reimagining, and reconnecting — always evolving.

At the heart of KYOTOGRAPHIE lies the Main Programme. Each year, the festival’s co-directors, Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi, establish a distinctive theme, around which the programme is curated and artists are invited. Various venues across Kyoto city are transformed into special exhibition spaces through close collaboration between the KYOTOGRAPHIE team, participating artists, venue partners, and scenographers.

Humanity encompasses the diverse experiences and qualities that define us as individuals and as a collective. As we grow further as a society, how do we define humanity? Reflecting on our capacity for love, empathy, and resilience, the 2025 KYOTOGRAPHIE theme is illuminated through two distinct cultural perspectives: the Japanese and the Western, exploring the diversity of human experience. Western traditions often highlight individuality, autonomy, and the centrality of humans in the world, celebrating personal freedom and universal moral principles. In contrast, the Japanese concept of humanity is deeply relational, emphasizing harmony and interdependence, and viewing humanity as inseparable from the natural world. The lived experience is central to the works within this year’s program. Artworks created from deep emotional responses to life reflect and comment on the fabric in which each of us exist. Perhaps our shared traits and values remind us of our responsibility to nurture compassion, foster understanding and create a sense of belonging, and connection. In seeking meaning together through the power of photography we hope that it may engage people to create a shared understanding of humanity in all its complexity, inspiring greater connection and shared accountability in our ever-changing and chaotic world.

Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi
Co-founders and Co-Directors of
KYOTOGRAPHIE

Outline 開催概要

KYOTOGRAPHIE
International Photography Festival 2025

EVENT NAME: KYOTOGRAPHIE
International Photography Festival 2025

DATES: April 12 (Sat) - May 11 (Sun), 2025

Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi

KYOTOGRAPHIE Co-Founders and Directors

Lucille Reyboz

Born in 1973, Lucille Reyboz began her journey with photography in West Africa, where she spent a part of her childhood. She first travelled to Japan whilst working with Salif Keita, accompanying him when he was invited to collaborate on Ryuichi Sakamoto’s opera LIFE (1999). A portrait photo grapher, Reyboz also produced numerous record covers for labels such as Blue Note and Verve. While developing a prolific photographic practice, she exhibited her work worldwide, most notably the series Batammaba
Bâtisseurs d’Univers at Visa pour l’Image (2001), Source at Phillips de Pury, New York (2007), and Belles de Bamako at CHANEL Nexus Hall, Tokyo (2011). She has published several books, inclu ding Batammaba Bâtisseurs d’Univers (Gallimard, 2004), Source (Éditions de la Martinière, 2007), Belles de Bamako (Éditions de la Martinière, 2011) and Impressions du Japon (Éditions de la Martinière, 2013), co-authored with novelist Keiichiro Hirano. Reyboz lives
and works in Kyoto, where she co-founded and co-directs KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival, alongside Yusuke Nakanishi, in 2013, and KYOTOPHONIE Borderless Music Festival in 2023.

Yusuke Nakanishi

Lighting director, co-founder and co-director of KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival and KYOTOPHONIE Borderless Music Festival. Born in 1968, Yusuke Nakanishi is a lighting artist who travels the world, expressing his impressions of light and shadow from memory. He has worked as a lighting director for feature films, stage productions, music concerts, fashion shows and interior design projects. He also created the Eatable Lights object series
and has exhibited installations at the Hara Museum, the School Gallery Paris and Nuit Blanche Kyoto. Nakanishi lives and works in Kyoto, where he co-founded and co-directs KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival, alongside Lucille Reyboz, in 2013, and KYOTOPHONIE Borderless Music Festival in 2023.

Vision ビジョン

KYOTOGRAPHIE aims to foster an appreciation of photography as a medium and art form.

We actively seek innovation in audience and artist engagement, and bring opportunities’ for professional development, collaboration and self-expression.

We strive to educate through our Public Program and exhibitions.

We inspire a greater appreciation and understanding of photography, with original scenography in traditional and contemporary architecture.

We hope that the exchanges born through KYOTOGRAPHIE will lead to new creations and businesses, contributing to the promotion of employment in the arts sector in Kyoto.

We aim to establish KYOTOGRAPHIE as an important annual event that enhances global attention on Kyoto and provides a compelling reason for people from both Japan and abroad to visit the city.

Web Archive

Closing Report

The Story So Far これまでのストーリー

The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami was a vivid reminder of the need for solid platforms for communication and cultural exchange between Japan and the rest of the world. Japanese camera and printing technology is legendary, but Japanese photographers still have a long way to go in terms of being recognised for their use of photography as a medium of expression. KYOTOGRAPHIE seeks to explore issues that affect us all through photography while showcasing the incredible talent in Japan and the rest of the world here in Kyoto, a city of both tradition and innovation.

In this effort we have benefited from the assistance of numerous corporations, organisations and individuals, as well as the city, prefectural and national governments. Without this support, KYOTOGRAPHIE would not be possible.

Young people, in particular, have the potential to serve as a link between Japan and the rest of the world. While every day of preparation has been a process of trial and error, each one has brought new encounters and opportunities.

We are confident this fusion of the new and the old will bring about new ways of thinking, and propel our festival to new heights.