From Japan is Boris Mikhailov s photographic statement from and on Japan. Best known for images of his native Ukraine, Mikhailov is concerned with ignored social realities and depicts his subjects with tragicomic compassion. By turning his attention to Japan, Mikhailov has joined other contemporary colour photographers such as Nan Goldin and Juergen Teller who have been fascinated by the country. Mikhailov s Japan displays sexual desire as an often repressed but underlying social factor. Boris Mikhailov was born in 1938 in Kharkov, Ukraine, and today lives and works in the Ukraine and Berlin. His work has been important in documenting the effects of the break-up of the Soviet Union on social structures and the human condition. Mikhailov has exhibited extensively, at institutions including the Kunsthalle Zurich and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2000 he received the Hasselblad Award.