Landscape - Shibata Toshio (signed)

“Landscape” is a photo book by Japanese photographer Toshio Shibata. This catalog was published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum from 2008 to 2009. It is a book that re-examines landscapes where artificial structures and nature intersect, presenting the fascinating forms found at the boundary between civil engineering and nature.

Unlike landscape photography that captures the beauty of nature, Shibata has consistently focused on topographies and structures modified by human hands. He meticulously photographs civil engineering structures such as dams, embankments, roads, and rockfall prevention nets with a large format camera, bringing out rhythms created by straight and curved lines, repeating patterns, and symmetry within the frame. While these works reflect the meticulousness and craft-like sensibility of Japanese civil engineering, they also convey the dynamic relationship between artificial objects and nature.

These landscapes are more than just records. The serene images first display a beauty of form, then quietly prompt reflection on how nature has been altered by human activity. A distinctive feature is the composition, which excludes clues like place names, making specific locations appear as if they could be other landscapes. In addition to various locations across Japan, since the late 1990s, Shibata has also photographed dams in the United States, allowing the regional differences to subtly emerge from the details of his images.

The works are categorized into three types: "Color," "Night View," and "Monochrome," offering a comprehensive overview of his work from the 1980s to his recent pieces. This book compiles the work of an artist who has revealed new charms in landscape photography through detailed depictions using a large-format camera and a structural perspective.

[Title] Landscape - Toshio Shibata
[Publisher] Ryokou Yomiuri Shuppansha
[Publication Date] July 30, 2012 (3rd printing)
[Page Count] 64 pages
[Size] Approx. 258*364*8mm / 710g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese・English
[Title Reading] LANDSCAPE
[Author/Editor] Toshio Shibata/Author, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum/Planning & Supervision, Satomi Fujimura/Planning
[Printing] Toppan Printing/Printing & Binding
[ISBN] 9784897522852
[Condition] Used; gold pen signature on the inside front cover 【8】Excellent to Good (slight dirt on colophon)
[Accessories] -
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibition] 2008 "Landscape: Toshio Shibata Exhibition" Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo)

Toshio Shibata (1949-)

Born in Tokyo in 1949. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Oil Painting, and completed his postgraduate studies there.
In 1975, he received a scholarship from the Belgian Ministry of Education and enrolled in the photography department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, where he began to seriously pursue photography. He returned to Japan in 1979.

Shibata gained recognition for his works capturing artificial structures within nature, such as dams, sediment control dams, and concrete retaining walls across Japan, using a large format camera. Through meticulous monochrome prints and precise compositions, he presented the inherent structures and forms in modern Japanese landscapes. In 1992, he received the 17th Ihei Kimura Award for his photobook "Nihon Tenkei" (Type of Japan). In the same year, he was selected for "New Photography 8" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He continued to exhibit extensively both in Japan and internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 1997. Since the 2000s, he has also worked with color photography, broadening his range of expression. In 2008, he held a large-scale solo exhibition "Landscape" at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. In 2009, he received the Photographic Society of Japan's Artist Award and the Higashikawa Award for Domestic Photographer.

His works are held in major art museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

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