Born in Tokyo, Japan, Tokuko Ushioda graduated from Kuwasawa Design School in 1963. She taught at Kuwasawa Design School and Tokyo Zōkei University from 1966 to 1978 and has worked as a freelance photographer since 1975. In 2018, her Bibliotheca series won the Domon Ken Award, the Photographic Society of Japan’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Higashikawa International Photo Festival’s Domestic Photographer Award. Other works include Ice Box, for which she photographed the contents of various families’ refrigerators.