Zone The Final Land: Human Dominion

A photo book titled "ZONE: Human dominion" by Japanese photographer Yutaka Kanase.

This collection features works primarily photographed in the Tokyo suburbs, particularly Chiba, between 1989 and 1998. It is a masterpiece that sharply reflects the depths of Japanese society through landscapes shaped by human "planning" – reclaimed land, industrial zones, cultural housing, suburban housing complexes, roads, and developed areas created after Japan's period of rapid economic growth.

The "ZONE" in the title refers to a space where humans enclose, manage, and isolate themselves while living. In the afterword of this book, Kanase writes,

"The scenery created by human deeds is a reflection of humanity itself."

The photographs depict places created in the name of prosperity and development, yet they are all somehow empty, violent, and unsettling. Industrial parks, reclaimed land, massive facilities, suburban residential areas—the process by which the "paradise" brought about by rapid growth and development gradually transformed into a "final realm" is captured with a heavy yet quiet gaze.

However, this work is not merely social criticism photography. In Kanase's photographs, traces of human activity and prayer still linger beyond the desolate landscapes. The images, where light, mist, water surfaces, and the textures of artificial objects intricately intersect, convey a strange beauty and a sense of an ending.

Highly regarded as one of the important works of Japanese photography in the 1990s, including the text by Osamu Nishitani and the book design by Shigemi Togashi, it received the 12th "Photo Society Award" in 2000.

This book acutely documents the sense of stagnation, anxiety, and the end of the illusion of "growth" that permeated Japanese society after the collapse of the bubble economy.

[Title] Zone : Human dominion
[Publisher] Yutaka Kanase Photography Office, mole
[Publication Date] May 5, 1999 (First Edition)
[Pages] 108 pages
[Size] Approx. 284×250×13mm / 838g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] ZON : TSUINOKUNI : HYUMAN DOMINION
[Author/Editor, etc.] Yutaka Kanase / Author, Osamu Nishitani / Text, Shigemi Togashi / Book Design, Motoi Tsuda / Editor
[Printing] Tokyo Shashin Insatsusho
[ISBN] 4938628317
[Condition] Used [5] Good (Cover: minor scratches on top edge, Body: slight tanning on edges)
[Accessories] None
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Yutaka KANASE (金瀬胖) 1944-2024

Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1944. Photographer and photo book editor.

After working for an organization, he became a freelance photographer in 1991. He continued to photograph structural issues facing Japanese society, such as landscapes in urban areas, pollution, development, nuclear accidents, labor, and local communities.

In his representative work "ZONE: Human dominion," he depicted the violence and emptiness lurking in Japanese society after the period of rapid economic growth, through developed areas and artificial landscapes in the Tokyo suburbs. In 2000, he received the 12th "Photo Society Award."

He later published "THE DAY AFTER" and "EXPOSED Tokaimura Kankoroku," which focused on the JCO criticality accident in Tokai Village. He is known for his unique photographic expression that connects social documentary with personal sensibility.

He also served as an instructor at the Modern Photography Institute and as a representative director of the Japan Realism Photographers Group, contributing to the development of many photographers.

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