This portfolio appears in VICE Magazine's 2019 Photo Issue. With this issue we wanted to celebrate the absurd, the lighthearted, and the humorous. It’s important to take a break from the real world. As much as we need to be informed, engaged, and aware, we also need to laugh. We wanted to champion the people making art with a sense of humor. In today’s climate, there’s something nicely subversive about that. You can read more about our theme in the letter from our editor.
Advertisement
Check out an interactive version of the issue here, and why not subscribe to the magazine while you're at it?Twenty-five-year-old Japanese photographer Izumi Miyazaki is no stranger to playful imagery. When asked about the inspiration behind her images, she cites the work of surrealist artists like Michel Gondry and René Magritte. This comes as no surprise when you consider the photos she submitted for our 2016 Photo Issue—in one, french fries fall from the sky as a trail of ketchup drips out of her eyes, in another, she holds a cheerleader pose while standing atop a mountain of rice. Miyazaki has gone on to create mind-bending selfies for publications and several gallery shows, including Wild Project Gallery in Luxembourg and Art-U room in Tokyo. For this issue, she produced two new photographs that poke fun at the art of the pimple pop. Bringing the bizarre to an intimate (and slightly gross) level, she reimagines chin extractions in the form of flying caviar and oozing ketchup and mustard.
