Dr Mizuho Nishioka is a Japanese-born photographic artist and researcher based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is recognised internationally for her experimental and materially driven approach to photographic imaging. In 2016, she became the first person in Aotearoa New Zealand to be awarded a PhD specialising in photography. Her doctoral research, A String of Data: disrupting, altering and generating the photographic image, established a practice-led methodology that integrates environmental forces, computational systems, and material processes into the production of images.

Nishioka’s practice challenges conventional photographic authorship. Rather than treating photography as a fixed act of capture, she introduces natural amendments, climatic disruptions, software systems, and temporal shifts into the image-making process. Seascapes, tidal systems, saltwater, wind conditions, and atmospheric change frequently operate as collaborators in her work. Through these entanglements, her projects explore the agency of the image and question how landscape and climate can co-produce visual form. Her large-scale installations, often composed of multi-panel pigment prints mounted to museum standards, emphasise both technical precision and spatial immersion.

Her work has been exhibited extensively across Europe and internationally. She has presented solo and major works at the European Cultural Centre in Palazzo Mora, Venice (2022, 2024), as official collateral events of the Venice Biennale. Her collaborative project Tide Sketch was exhibited at Ars Electronica in Linz (2021–2022), and her photobook-based works have been presented at the Fiebre Photobook Festival at CentroCentro, Madrid. In 2025, she presents Machine Entanglements at the Noorderlicht Biennale in Groningen, the Netherlands, further expanding her investigation into machine–environment image systems.

Her work is also featured in The Distance of Blue and in Artificial Lines of Flight at the The Wrong Biennale, extending her practice into global digital platforms. In 2025–2026 she presents work at Art’otel Hoxton, London, and at Immersive Media Port, Harwich, and has been accepted to undertake a residency at the Millennium Film Workshop in New York. These engagements reflect the expanding international reach of her practice across photography, moving image, and immersive media contexts.

Dr Nishioka is a Lecturer in Photography at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Her research contributes to international discourse in expanded photographic practice and environmental image systems, and she integrates her international exhibition work directly into postgraduate supervision and studio teaching. Through sustained engagement with leading global platforms, she continues to position New Zealand-based photographic research within an international contemporary art framework.

Selected Exhibitions & Projects (2025-2026) 

2026

• Immersive Media Port, Harwich, United Kingdom (2026). International presentation of expanded photographic and immersive media work.
• Art’otel Hoxton, CapitartX, London, United Kingdom (2026). International presentation of expanded photographic and immersive media work.
• Millennium Film Workshop, Millennium, New York, United States (2026) International presentation and project development in moving image and experimental media.

2025

• Machine Entanglements, Noorderlicht Biennale, Groningen, The Netherlands (2025) Large-scale multi-panel installation exploring machine–environment image systems.
• Artificial Lines of Flight, The Wrong Biennale (2025) International digital biennale presentation. 
• The Distance of Blue, The Wrong Biennale (2025) Curated presentation of expanded photographic practice.

Full exhibition list can be found in 'Publications'.