was born in Otaru, Japan in 1950. As a
young child he moved with his family to the US and subsequently lived in many
places. from Hawaii to New Hampshire, and again in Japan, until his father
retired from the military. Throughout his childhood, Ryuijie showed a serious
inclination to the arts. This interest began to materialize during his own
military service. While stationed in Guam, Ryuijie learned underwater
photography while pursuing his long time interest in scuba diving. After his
tour, he came back to the Monterey Peninsula where he attended college and
began a successful career in lithography. It was in Monterey that an exhibit
of Jerry Uelsmann’s photographs inspired him and propelled him into the
practice of fine art black and white photography. Ryuijie has steadfastly pursued
his own photographic vision for over thirty years, and has acquired a reputation
for his exquisite platinum/palladium prints, in addition to his traditional
black and white work. An exceptionally prolific artist, Ryuijie’s career has
been highlighted by a multitude of exhibitions. His work has appeared in View
Camera, Photovision, Camera and Darkroom, Black & White, Lenswork, and Focus
magazines. He has published three books Ryuijie: Photographs, Time and Place,
and Fragments of Time, along with smaller catalogs. His first portfolio
Ryuijie: Ten Photographs was published in 1990 and his second portfolio Ryuijie:
Portfolio Two Platinum/Palladium was published in 2002. Ryuijie’s currently
work involves large split toned black and white prints of frozen botanicals,
and his third portfolio, P-Square a selection of square photographs taken with
a 2 1/4 Rollei camera. In October 2005 Ryuijie returned to his first love the
landscape, and the abstraction, creating panoramic visions of the natural
world. Works by Ryuijie can be found in private and public collections word wide
including the Getty in Los Angeles. His work is represented by the Photo
Gallery International in Japan, Galerie 19/21 in Guilford Connecticut, Peter
Fetterman Gallery in Los Angeles, Susan Spiritus Gallery, Newport Beach, and
The Weston Gallery. Carmel, California, Modernbook, Palo Alto, California,
Verve Gallery, Santa Fe, Scott Nichols Gallery San Francisco, Portfolio Two
is available at the Levin Gallery in Monterey, California.
was born in Oakland, California. Camille was drawn to the Monterey Peninsula for its diversity of marine
life and its community of divers. In 1999, she moved to Monterey to attend college and become a certified
diver. At the California State University of Monterey Bay, she studied alternative processing and film
production with an emphasis in replicative media. To further her education in the arts, she continued her
studies in language, art, and cultural studies at the University Paris IV Sorbonne, in Paris, France. Following
her return to the Monterey peninsula in 2004, she began work with two commercial photographers. In 2005, she
also began printing with Ryuijie and assisted in printing platinum portfolios. The collaboration with Ryuijie
on the Kanchi images would come later. In late 2005, a body of work titled “On One Breath”, by photographer
Scott Campbell, inspired Camille to photograph beneath the sea. Through the help of Campbell and others Camille
quickly learned freediving. In 2007, she studied free-diving physiology with the guidance of Performance
Freediving. Several freedives and images later, the world is introduced to “Kanchi”. Camille’s personal
work has been featured at the San Francisco Academy of Arts “Avant Grande 2007” show, in the CPA and Spectrum
Photo Auctions, and is represented by the Bryant Street Gallery in Palo Alto and the Levin Gallery in Monterey, California.