About
Ruth Toda-Nation was born in Aomori, Japan. Her photographic practice is informed by a nomadic childhood bridging two cultures, Japan and Britain. She began photographing in Liverpool in the 1980s and later in rural northern Japan. Her intimate approach explores family dynamics and community bonds, while reflecting on ageing, transience and departure. Her long-term project documents her father’s final years and her journey as his carer. Ruth often combines images with words drawn from conversations and personal reflections.
Her first book, Our Lockdown Garden, was published by The Mindful Editions in 2022. Love is a Life Story, received the Royal Photographic Society Documentary Photographer of the Year award in 2023, and an Honourable Mention in the 19th Julia Margaret Cameron Award. Portraits from her ongoing project 900 Yards were selected for the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain in 2023.
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These concerns are rooted in my childhood as a Third Culture Kid (TCK). Born in Japan, I grew up moving between Japan and Britain as the child of Christian missionary parents. Living between cultures, and within a world where questions of faith, life and death were openly explored, shaped my awareness of transience and the complexity of the human experience.
My work sits between autobiography and documentary, combining traditions of storytelling with Japanese ideas of wabi-sabi—the acceptance of imperfection—and mono no aware—the bittersweet awareness of the passing of time and the beauty of the present moment. Photography allows me to explore the external world as a way of understanding my own internal landscape, often bringing the past into conversation with the present.
I take a long term, immersive approach, building relationships with the people and communities I photograph, and often return to people and places of personal significance.
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Ruth also works as an interpreter, translator, mediator and language teacher, with a particular focus on supporting Japanese children growing up outside their home culture as Third Culture Kids (TCK’s). Through this work, she seeks to foster connection and understanding between Japan and Britain — the two island nations she loves and calls home.