A project about family and shared memories of childhood by lens-based artist Sayuri Ichida. Born in Japan and currently based in the United Kingdom, Ichida’s practice explores themes of self-identity and often draws on her own life experiences. “Playing the Piano Upstairs” emerged from Ichida’s relationship with her sister and recollections of their upbringing. All of the photos were taken in their hometown of Niigata, a small coastal town and one of the snowiest regions in Japan. It is also the location of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant where Ichida’s father worked. Following the Fukushima disaster, the area has come to embody nostalgia and anxiety—its beauty inseparable from a sense of unease. The title of the project is a reference to Ichida’s sister’s dedication to practicing the piano for hours after school:

“When we were young, our personalities were at odds, and our connection felt distant. After losing our mother to cancer in our late teens, we faced grief together, and over time, a deeper understanding slowly took root. Photographing my sister became a way to acknowledge the transformation of that bond—how years of silence, conflict, and care have shaped a fragile but enduring closeness…. In this work, I combined portraits of my sister with quiet studies of the surrounding landscape—fields, snow, and sea. The snow scenes are especially resonant: Niigata’s long winters and record snowfalls shaped our sense of time and endurance, where the world often disappeared under layers of white. These snowscapes serve as metaphors for memory itself—mutable, obscured, yet softly glowing just below the surface.”