'The Massai Bride Wearing a Warrior’s Face Ruff,' Kenya (Self-Portrait), 2005

Over the last two decades, Japanese-born, French-trained photographer Kimiko Yoshida has been challenging different facets of identity: culture, nationality and gender, among others. In each of her self-portraits, Yoshida relies on the same physical variables: the cropping, the setting, the lighting, and most importantly, the face—her own. The changing variable is the costume, often a cultural or religious artifact borrowed from a variety of cultures and periods. In doing so, Yoshida collapses the gap between her own heritage and those of other women around the world, calling into question the innate associations with women’s roles in different societies. 'There is no search for identity in my work,' she has said. 'I know that identity doesn’t exist. There are only infinite layers of me.

In 2005, Yoshida received the International Photography Award. Her work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Museo Soumaya, Mexico; Kawasaki City Museum, Japan; and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie; Paris.