Marita Ibañez Sandoval

The city of Joso in Ibaraki Prefecture is known for its large population of immigrants from Latin America. To understand the impact of these immigrant communities on the urban and rural landscape of Japan and how this is reflected in the visual communication of the city, three independent photo shoots were conducted. The working methodology employed in this project is called “Mending & Remending,” using photomedia, photowalks, rephotography, and photomontage. This visual research is based on Flusser’s ideas that representing migrants as mirrors and windows is essential to (re)observing the city through our eyes and experiences. The project’s 3D model includes photographs and re-photographs of the city taken at different times and days of the week, creating a midpoint between the two-dimensionality of printed photographs and the three-dimensionality of the visited landscape.

Marita Ibañez Sandoval is a visual researcher from Lima, Peru, now based in Ibaraki, Japan. Currently a Ph.D. fellow in Photomedia at the Doctoral Program in Art at the University of Tsukuba and member of the Time Lab/McLeod Lab research group. Ibañez Sandoval’s visual research focuses on landscape, photomontage, migration, Latin American communities, and sustainable darkroom practices. Her work has been shown in different cities in Latin America, Europe, the USA, Korea, and Japan.