Sayaka Ikemoto was born in Tokyo, Japan. After receiving a B.A. in Spanish from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, she went on to receive a M.A. in Latin American Studies. In April 1993, she joined Asahi Shimbun (newspaper) as staff photographer. She became an assistant to the underwater photographer Ikuo Nakamura in 1995, and went on to become a freelancer. From September 2000 to March 2002, went to study photography abroad in Paris, after which she began to pursue various projects as a freelance photographer based in Tokyo.
Capturing the undersea (large creatures, school of fish, underwater seascapes, etc.), and human activities (people in the city, travel scenes, and on the stage, e.g. orchestras of classical music and dance), she recently began pursuing other fields (aurora-borealis, animals in African region, etc.) as well. With her theme “Earth and Life On the Planet,” her subject has expanded from the depths of the ocean to as far as infinite space.
She has taught photography in Tokyo (she became an instructor at JCII in 2003 and Nikon School in 2008), whilst writing a serial for magazines, etc., and has been judging in photography contests such as the NPCI (Nikon Photo Contest International) and the IPA (International Photography Awards).