204PH

Toshio Shibata

Harmony

1989–2014

The photographs of Toshio Shibata achieve a unique harmony by focusing on the interweaving of natural forces with man-made structures. Long exposures capture water’s strength and innnate grace as it spills, crashes, and glides over constructed sluices and channels. Arcing paths of highways are seen carving into mountainsides and sheer cliff faces are transformed into repeating patterns as they are interlaced with human engineering. Using a large format camera, he eliminates most references to scale, sky, and horizon while providing crisp detail and texture. Under Shibata’s eye, the contemporary landscape becomes a mysterious abstract composition, the result of nature being entertwined with engineering.

Shibata began his career in Japan, and the photographs he made there explore the striking visual dichotomy, but also the poetry and even elegance, of an increasingly constructed Japanese landscape. In 1996 he was awarded a fellowship from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 1996, that allowed him to travel to the US and make extraordinary pictures of American public works projects, this yielded his classic series depicting views of the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. The photographs from this period are a unique intersection of American engineering and an unmistakable Japanese aesthetic.

Harmony
Ukiha City, Fukuoka Prefecture (C-2357), 2014
Harmony
Koka City, Shiga Prefecture (C-1569), 2010
Harmony
Misato Town, Miyazaki Prefecture (C-2286), 2014
Harmony
Otaki Village, Nagano Prefecture (C-0469), 2005
Harmony
Kuroiso City, Tochigi Prefecture (#0177), 1989
Harmony
Kijo Town, Miyazaki Prefecture (C-2082), 2011
Harmony
Niyodogawa Town, Kochi Prefecture (C-2546), 2014
Harmony
Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture (C-0602), 2006
Harmony
Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture (C-2300), 2014
Harmony
Tosa Town, Kochi Prefecture (C-2132), 2012
Harmony
Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture (C-1194), 2009
Harmony
Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture (C-1974), 2011
Harmony
Weir Dam, Sullivan County, Tennessee (#2312), 1997
Harmony
Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture (C-0718), 2007
Harmony
Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture (C-2391), 2014
Harmony
Kamikawa Town, Hokaido (C-1355), 2009
Harmony
Niimi City, Okayama Prefecture (C-2398), 2014
Harmony
Iide Town, Yamagata Prefecture (C-0543), 2006
Harmony
Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture (C-0881), 2007
Harmony
Onokami Village, Gunma Prefecture, 1994
35°00'00.0"N 136°00'00.0"E

Location: Japan

Gallery: Laurence Miller Gallery


Posted: August 2017
Category: Photography

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