GUCCI will serve as the main sponsor for the "Asama International Photo Festival 2022 PHOTO MIYOTA" from July 16 to September 4, 2022.

This event honors contemporary artists at the forefront of their fields, exploring themes deeply connected to GUCCI's narrative, and expressing the brand's core values of creativity and imagination.

The 2022 "Asama International Photo Festival PHOTO MIYOTA," held in its full capacity for the first time in three years, will unfold across two venues: real and virtual. The main venue for "PHOTO MIYOTA," offering a tangible experience, is MMoP, a complex facility nestled within the rich natural landscape at the foot of Mount Asama.

At the Karuizawa Photo Museum, which opens concurrently with the photo festival within the same facility, a curated exhibition by the art photography magazine "IMA" showcases collaborations between seven internationally renowned Japanese photographers and gentlemen adorned in GUCCI.

For this collaboration, seven photographers—Wahei Kimura, Kenta Cobayashi, Hajime Sawatari, Sakiko Nomura, Mayumi Hosokura, Yoshinori Mizutani, and Daido Moriyama—captured portraits of seven gentlemen active in various fields. These include Jun Shison (actor), GUCCI's global brand ambassador, alongside Arata Iura (actor), Junya Ishigami (architect), Nobuaki Kaneko (musician/actor), Yoshiki Kusumi (plasterer), Morioka Yoshiyuki (representative of Morioka Shoten), and Shuichi Yoshida (writer).

These works are presented with overwhelming presence, transcending mere viewing to offer an immersive experience that questions the nature of contemporary Japanese masculinity and men's identities based on free self-expression.

Furthermore, under this year's festival theme, "Mirrors & Windows," the exhibition reflects on the meaning, role, and power of photography as a means to examine oneself and peer into society during these uncertain and opaque times.

To commemorate this exhibition, a limited edition photobook titled "NEW GENTLEMEN," featuring the works presented at the festival, will be published by IMA photobooks in a limited run of 300 numbered copies.

Additionally, from July 28 to September 4, 2022, the GUCCI Omotesando Men's Store will host a photo exhibition, "NEW GENTLEMEN by Daido Moriyama featuring Jun Shison," showcasing works by participating artist Daido Moriyama, with Jun Shison as the subject.

Furthermore, from August 23 to August 28, 2022, the limited edition photobook "NEW GENTLEMEN" will be available at Morioka Shoten's Ginza store, where Yoshiyuki Morioka, who appears as a subject in Mayumi Hosokura's work, serves as representative. With its concept of a bookstore that hosts exhibitions inspired by a single book, this venue will guide visitors into a more intimate and profound dialogue with the artworks, serving as a space to convey the message embedded within this photobook.