What is FOJP?

Friends of Japanese Photography is founded in Berlin. It is a non-profit club with eight founding members from Germany and Japan. We provide a net work for those who enjoy photography from Japan and are inspired by Japan and its culture.

Founders:

Mario Eugen Wyrwinski

Executive committee member

Born in Würzburg (Bavaria), based in Berlin. Mario is an avid collector of Japanese photography and photo-books. He is a photographer, working mainly with Polaroid. He exhibits regularly in Japan, Europe and the USA.

Yumiko Urae

Deputy committee member

Born in Tokyo, based in Berlin since 1992. Yumiko works as a freelance writer and coordinator, mainly for Japanese print media. She has interviewed many artists and photographers from Europe and Japan.

Kenji Takazawa

Photography critic. Director of the IG Photo Gallery, Tokyo.

Kenji writes reviews about photography exhibitions for newspapers and magazines. He gives lectures about photographic history, books and criticism at universities and technical colleges. He has lectured at photography festivals including “The History of Japanese Photography” at the Tbilisi Photo Festival Georgia in 2016, at the Rokko International Photography Festival in Kobe and at the Hokkaido Photo Festa.

Rie Yamada

Treasurer

Born in Nagoya and based in Berlin since 2011, Rie finished her BA in 2017, her MA in Visual Communication in 2020 at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin and her Meisterschüler degree in 2022.

Christian Rothmann

Born in Poland, based in Berlin since 1977. Christian is a painter, photographer and graphic artist. Taught photography & silk-screen printing and American art history, University of Fine Art, Berlin. Residencies, travels and exhibitions throughout Japan since 1993.

Dominik Metzger

He has collected Japanese photo-books and has been an admirer of Japanese design since he was a teenager.

Mai Imoto

Born in Osaka. Mai is an artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Having studied visual art in Kyoto, she lived and worked in Karlsruhe and Berlin for 7 years. She lives in Kamakura since 2025.

Tadaaki Kumagai

Born in Kamakura. Kuma is an exhibition designer, camera enthusiast, visual and craft artist. He organised several Camera Obscure workshops in Germany. Having lived in Berlin for 10 years, he moved to Kamakura in 2025.

Won't you join our activities?

We are looking for people who share our vision and are willing to promote our activities together.