Megumi Otsuka is a Tokyo-based photographer. She was born and raised in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan and moved to Tokyo in 2002. She started her street photography career after being inspired by Daido Moriyama's photo-book "Shinjuku". She then started participating in his workshops and teaching herself, taking street photographs of the city of Tokyo with monochrome film,
and her first photo-book titled "TOKYO" was published in 2012. The series was published in the Japanese leading camera magazines, "Asahi Camera" and "Nippon Camera". And in 2014, her second photo-book titled "IBIZA" was published, featuring monochrome photographs she took at clubs in Ibiza. Since 2020, she has participated in many group exhibitions across the world.
“I am a photographer who keeps photographing "Surechigai".
"Surechigai" is a Japanese word which means people passing each other, and also means people misunderstanding each other. The reason why she continues to look at and photograph Surechigai in the streets of the city is
because she herself has a strong desire to find the point where she will not misunderstand nor be misunderstood by the ones she loves. In most cases, there are strong ties between a person and their family members during one's childhood. But from adolescence, as the number of secrets we do not or will not tell increase, gaps in our relationships with others grow. Even if there is steadfast love at the bottom of our hearts towards others, we may feel frustrated when we can not truly understand each other, and a sense of emptiness and loneliness will seep into our hearts even when with or talking to the ones we love. This is especially true for relationships that start in adulthood, where each party may have secrets.
Whether one is on their way somewhere with a purpose or just wandering aimlessly, everyone has secrets and feels loneliness as well. A city is a place where many such people pass each other frequently. There is space between people that can never be filled completely, and a city is always full of Surechigai.”