Crane Kalman Gallery
SHIHO KITO
Founded in 2005, Crane Kalman Brighton is an independent British photography gallery specialising in exhibiting contemporary work. The gallery has been established to provide a platform to showcase the work of mostly up-and-coming, young British and UK-based photographers, as well as some International artists.
The gallery has held solo exhibitions by artists such as Polly Borland, Simon Roberts, Jane Hilton, Mary McCartney, Tim Flach and the late Michael Ormerod, as well as the work of international photographers such as Terry Richardson, Joseph Szabo, Karine Laval, George Tice, Abelardo Morell, Hugh Holland and Hans van der Meer.
We have collaborated on exhibitions with leading photographic specialists such as Michael Hoppen in the UK and Benrubi and M+B Gallery in the US, as well organisations such as the FotoRamblas Archive in Barcelona, Foto8 Magazine, the Brighton Photo Biennial and Photo Fringe as well as working with over 50 of the leading Photography Degree courses from across the UK’s Universities and Colleges on an annual showcase of the best graduate photography talent.
Having been based in the North Laine of Brighton for many years, the gallery now operates from a variety of differnt locations, both in Brighton and in London, as well as exhibiting at various annual art fairs in the UK and internationally.
Shiho Kito is Japanese photographer currently based in Gandhinagar, India, whose work also takes her to Japan and the UK where she teaches, writes and curates on photography. Having been awarded one-year fellowship from Government of Japan, she has based her practice at the National Institute of Design (NID) in India since January 2014.
She studied photography at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music and the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, England and completed her MA in photography from London College of Communication in 2011. Shiho’s work was first exhibited at Crane Kalman Brighton in the Cream: Graduate Showcase in 2010, showing images from her on-going ‘pikari’ series. Since then, her work has been exhibited and published internationally, including in the UK, Japan, and India.
‘pikari’ is an onomatopoeia in Japanese, which means ‘shining’ or ‘flashing’. The idea for pikari came from ‘star-navigation’, the ancient technique of Polynesian sailors who would find their location and direction guided only by the natural environment. Since leaving Japan, Shiho has used lights in cities all over the world to find her own ‘path’.
Shiho’s photographs have been created using a large-format camera with 20-80 minute exposure time. Shiho won the Prime Minister’s Initiative Fund from the British Council and has worked on the ‘pikari’ project mainly in Ahmedabad, India, since 2008. Most recently, her work was part of a touring exhibition around India of five emerging Japanese photographers under the theme of light. The show toured Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru across 2013/14. Shiho was recently a finalist in the 6th 1_Wall Photography Award by Recruit Co. Ltd Japan and was given an Honourable Mention in the Magenta Flash Forward Awards covering the UK, USA and Canada.
