Giada Ripa’s ambitious project combines archive photography from the 1860s, a modern dominatrix – and the story of a relative who became a muse to 19th-century artists and intellectuals

Michiru Okajima, Yuki Kimura, Lolita Fashion. Photograph: Giada Ripa Thu 22 Oct 2026 02.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 22 Oct 2026 04.59 EDT

Ryo Nagata Yamato Transport Co Ltd, employee

The Yokohama Project by Italian photographer Giada Ripa is a beautifully crafted body of work that bridges generations, cultures and media to explore the profound transformation of Japanese society and landscape over a century and a half through the uncovering of a photographic archive miles from its origin. The Yokohama Project by Giada Ripa is available from GOST

Felice Beato, Out for a Walk, 1868

While rummaging through boxes in her family home in Italy, Ripa found an album of 53 hand-coloured photographs by the first visual narrator of Japan, Felice Beato, capturing 1860s Japanese local society.…