Akiko Tsuji was born in the fourth largest city in Japan where she was surrounded by buildings and far from nature. As a child, she enjoyed a fairly-tale reality and often daydreamed about fantasy.
She was a member of the art club in her adolescence and dreamed of becoming a cartoonist.
She had an opportunity to be dispatched as an exchange teacher to South Dakota in America in a rural town located near a Native American reservation. Tsuji was mesmerized by Native American culture.
At night she looked up to the millions of stars and dreamed about their creed.These experiences are inspiration for her work. Her photography journey began with her ambition to take photos Native American culture.
In her most significant work, she uses blueprint to express the beauty of the Earth.
She makes a negative from the photo and prints it on a blueprint under sunlight. After the blueprint dried, it is decorated with plants and painted.
Before the plants wilt, they are quickly scanned and finished as a photograph.
The blue hue in the blueprint represents the sky Tsuji looked up to in South Dakota, adorned with natural plants of this planet- the Earth.Tsuji created artwork to represent Native American creed and their respect of nature's beauty.
She interweaves her memories and nature. While there is a vague boundary that contrasts the photography and painting, we can see the sense of unity. Within her worlds, surrealism is a glimpse of a vivid imagination awakening, revealing an a
