Ryhan is a photographer and a PhD Student at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Agriculture. From farming green tea to researching agricultural products, practising photography together with research has provided her with a way of reconciling the paradoxical arcs of academia and art. Visual images are her method of bridging a product’s well grieved past to present day audiences. 

Currently her research focuses on resource colonialism and the cultural value of heritage food products. She will specifically delve into the ethical spaces of food production between Indonesia, Japan, and the Netherlands. Her Master’s thesis focused on sea salt, and her PhD research will see a pivot to spices as a case study. As an affiliated fellow at KITLV, Ryhan will continue her research through tapping into the archives available, as well as connecting with the different communities within the Netherlands.

Ryhan has also previously held solo exhibitions in Singapore, Nara, and Kyoto, as well as participated in group exhibitions in Tokyo. Currently she is working on art project titled 'The excursion of a memory「私たちの軌跡]', which is an exploration of the cultural intersections of human interactions with food as the medium. Rather than focusing on recipes however, she will be focusing on the ingredients themselves.