Tomohide Ikeya’s photography positions the human body in extreme circumstances. Ikeya places his figures in underwater or lunar-like environments, capturing images of contorted and strained bodies, subject to the violence of crashing ocean waves or the darkness of the moon. The photographs extract bodies from the comforts of a grounded existence on land, submerging them in challenging environs that are both familiar and alien. Ikeya amplifies the tumult of his images through stripped-down compositions. “Perhaps the essence of life, granted to everyone, is to live while struggling against death…Life is not just about visible beauty, but also about true strength, which we have from birth,” Ikeya has said.