Born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. Graduated from Seian University of Art and Design in 2000 and completed a postgraduate course the following year. Through the use of a variety of disguises in works such as "ID400," in which Sawada transformed herself into 400 different people and photographed the results with an automatic photo booth, and "OMIAI" in which she referenced the Japanese custom of taking pictures of a potential partner in an arranged marriage, Sawada expresses her self and her times in a humorous way. Her work also asks viewers to examine the ambiguities that exist between outside appearance and inner reality. In 2000, Sawada was awarded a Special Prize in the Canon New Century of Photography competition.
In 2004, she won the 29th Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award and the twentieth Annual Infinity Awards Young Photographer in New York. A solo exhibition of her work was held at Zabriskie Gallery in New York in 2003. Her work has also been shown as part of group shows like "The Self" (Photoespana, Madrid, 2002) and "About Face. Photography and the Death of the Portrait" (Hayward Gallery, London, 2004). Sawada currently lives in Kobe.

2004	[Desire to Mimic]MAK/Vienna/Austria
	[Costume]ZABRISKIE GALLERY/New York/America
	[ID400]The Third Gallery Aya /Osaka
	[Costume+cover]Konica Minolta Plaza/Tokyo
2003	[Costume]The Third Gallery Aya /Osaka
	[TOMOKO SAWADA-Two Photographic Series]ZABRISKIE GALLERY/New York/America
	[ID400+OMIAI]Kohji Ogura Gallery/ Nagoya
2002	[OMIAI] galerie p/ Brussel /Belgium
	[cover] SUMISO/ Osaka
2001	[cover] VAJRA/ Osaka
	[OMIAI]The Third Gallery Aya/ Osaka
	[OMIAI] sou art gallery/ Ehime
	[OMIAI]ROCKET/ Tokyo
2000	[ID400]Rocket/ Tokyo
1999	[ID400]gallery ITEZA/ Kyoto
	[ID]CLEAN SISTERS GALLERY/ Osaka
1997	[I speak about me]Gallery Chat Noir/ Hyogo

Group Exhibition

2004	[SPIRAL TAKE ART COLLECTION 2004 supported by MAISON MOET] Spiral/Tokyo
	[Upright Female]Bernard Toale Gallery/ Boston/ America
	[About Face.Photography and the Death of the Portrait] Hayward Gallery London/ England
	[out of the ordinary/ extraordinary: japanese contemporary photography] Japanischen Kulturinstituts in Koln / Koln/ German
	[Look into it!-4 Expressions of Photography]Hamada Children's Museum of Art/ Shimane
	[MEDIARENA]THE GOVETT-BREWSTER ART GALLERY/New Plymus/ New Zealand
	[Je t'envisage]the musee de l'Elysee/ Lausanne/ Swiss
	[Identity]SEPIA International and The Alkazi Collection of Photography/ New York/America
2003	[women's core playgame]Z platz museum/ Fukuoka
	[Care a Cara]Culturgest center/ Lisbon/ Portugal
	[Geometry of the F ace]the National Museum of Photography/ Copenhagen/Denmark
	[KEEP IN TOUCH-POSITIONS IN JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY] CAMERA AUSTRIA/ Graz /Austria
	[GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!]TOKYO OPERA CITY ART GALLERY/Tokyo
	[Art Court Frontier 2003] ARTCOURT Gallery/ Osaka
	[How Human: Life in the Post-Genome Era] International Center of Photography/ New York/America
	[Futuring Power]CASO/Osaka
2002	[Who?Me?: Role-Play in Self-Portrait Photography]ZABRISKIE GALLERY/New York/America
	[Portraits]The Third Gallery Aya / Osaka
	[stay with art:Green at window]Hotel T'POINT/ Osaka
	[The Year of New Work: Contemporary Asian Photography]Japan Society/ New York/America
	[photoGENEsis : Opus 2]Santa Barbara Museum of Art/ Santa Barbara/America
	[Futuring Power]Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography / Tokyo
	[Asian Crossing]Kyoto Art Center/ Kyoto-Taegu Art and Culture/Taegu Plytechnic College/ Taegu/Korea
	[The Self]PHOTOESPANA2002/ Madrid/Spain
	[CHAMELEON DREAMS]JURIA FRIEDMAN GALLERY/ Chicago/America
	[Eye Record of Daily Life] Minakuchi Culture and Art Center/ Shiga
2001	[The NCP Exhibition in Kyoto 2001]GALLERY RAKU/ Kyoto
	[myself-yourself]galerie p/ Brussel /Belgium
	[Photography]Contemporary Art Center/ Osaka
2000	[New Cosmos of Photography]Modapolitica/ Tokyo
	[Narcisse blesse]PASSAGE de RETZ/ Paris /France
1999	[15 young photographers]GALLERY MARONIE/ Kyoto