Rinko Kawauchi

After a short career in advertising, she discovered the world of photography in 2002, when she published three works that earned her widespread attention: Hanako, Utatane and Hanabi. That same year, she was awarded the Kimura Ihei prize. She was appointed an honorary member of the Royal Photographic Society in 2012. Since the 2000s, Kawauchi has had several solo exhibitions; among the most recent are M/E at the Fondazione Sozzani in Paris in 2023, and A Faraway Shining Star, Twinkling in Hand at Fotografiska in Stockholm in 2024.

In 2005, the Fondation Cartier presented her first solo exhibition in France. In honour of this,  Kawauchi created the slide show Cui-Cui, which explores the theme of family and daily life through 232 photographs of her closest friends and family, along with places associated with them. In 2006, her work was part of the exhibition of the Fondation Cartier's collection at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2021, she participated in the exhibition Les Citoyens, organised by the  Fondation Cartier at the Milan Triennale.