Akira Obata

Born in Tokyo, Japan. Expert in establishing the basic technology of computer map systems in Japan. His efficient technology for creating centerline, multi-layered digital maps has continued to grow and is still useful in people’s daily lives.

He had aspirations to become an artist and received professional education.
In the 1980s, shortly after the release of Apple’s Macintosh, he founded and ran Digital Magic, a company based on the concept of visual communication.
His work was reported by various media during this period.


Akira Obata has a long history with photography (cameras).
It started with a toy camera he bought with his allowance when he was 8 years old.
Even after establishing Digital Magic, the camera remained a familiar tool.
Every shoot has always had a close relationship with his work.
Today, Akira has freed himself from his past shoots, seeking freedom of expression and utilizing the camera as a part of his body of work.

He has a professional education in fine arts, but not in photography. All photographic techniques are self-taught.
Of course, there are many meisters who have strongly influenced him.
Photographers, painters, sculptors, musicians, philosophers, and many others.
He continues to study and apply the techniques and ideas he has learned from them to his photographic expression.

He is interested in the discrepancies that arise between the reality we see and what we know, and is fascinated by their constant contradiction and simultaneous coexistence.
He observes reality, thinks through images, and attempts to express them poetically. The visible and the invisible. He tries to talk about the relationship between parallel worlds and the real world.