Posted on Advocate.com November 06, 2010
Artist Spotlight: Tomoaki Hata
The photographer tells us, "I really did not choose drag queens as subjects, they chose me."
By Albert Smith
http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/Art/Artists_Spotlight_Tomoaki_Hata/ (http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/Art/Artists_Spotlight_Tomoaki_Hata/)
With over than 10 years of education in law, sociology, media studies, cultural studies, and art criticism in Japan, Tomoaki Hata began his career as a photographer in 1996 at Japan's groundbreaking HIV/AIDS benefit dance parties and with candid still photography of Japan's gay porn industry. Recently Tomoaki's photography was curated by Eric Mezil, the director of Collection Lambert, the contemporary art museum in Avignon, France. Many of Tomoaki's photographic works were exhibited in "AKIMAHEN" and "EIJYANAIKA," the biggest exhibition of modern Japanese artists in France, including Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, and Nobuyoshi Araki.