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 1981 in Oakland, California.
At age fifteen, she was introduced to Luc Besson's film "le Grand Bleu." Having
fallen in love with the sea, she was drawn to the Monterey Peninsula for
its underwater community. She made her move to the peninsula to attend California
State University at Monterey Bay in 1999. Here she studied both alternative
processing and film production. She later had the opportunity to work with local photographer Ryuijie, with many of his projects in platinum. In the Fall of 2005 Camille came across Scott Campbell's body of
work "On one Breath." It was at this time that she was re-inspired to photograph
the sea. The concept for Kanchi would later manifest after over 60 logged freedives
and countless images. From this point on, a photographic collaboration with Ryuijie
was clearly underway. Having the privilege of learning from a few of the underwater
community's most talented photographers and cinematographers, Camille continues to
reside in Monterey, developing her personal work and discovering new images in her
"quiet place."
