Toshio Shimamura

Toshio Shimamura was born in Kyoto, Japan, where he studied fashion design and then became a pastry chef in Kobe. He arrived in Paris in 1985 and entered the École Nationale de Création Industrielle / les Ateliers in 1987. After graduating, he moved to New York and worked as an assistant to the architect and designer Gaetano Pesce from 1991 to 1993. During this period, photography became the driving force of a new universe... During the exhibition "A flor de piel" (on the skin) at the Okendo art centre in San Sebastian (Esp) in 2006, the photographer was noticed by Christian Caujolle, founder and then artistic director of the agency and gallery VU'.  In 2010, Toshio Shimamura is a finalist for the Photography Prize of the Academy of Fine Arts. Today his photographs are present in several collections including the Colección Ordóñez-Falcón (COFF) visible at the TEA (Tenerife Espacio de las Artes) in Tenerife (Esp), and are exhibited in festivals, museums and galleries in France, Spain and Japan.