Tomoko Sawada was born in 1977 in Kobe, Japan and is now based in New York, USA. She has gained recognition in the international contemporary art scene as a photography artist and is a recipient of numerous important photography awards worldwide. Her work is collected by more than ten museums including Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, The Essl Collection of Contemporary Art and Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/ Contemporary Art (MAK) in Austria. Disguising herself to portray different roles traditionally assigned to the female gender in Japan, Sawada seeks to describe and question Japanese societal norms and culture in a highly thought provoking yet light-hearted nature.