Toshio Shibata

Midori City, Gunma Prefecture (C-1036)

2008

Toshio Shibata is one of Japan's leading landscape photographers. But he has chosen a most unconventional subject for his landscape photography - infrastructure. He photographs dams and waterfalls, bridges, erosion control barriers, irrigation sluices, all with his own unique perspective - no horizon lines, no broad vistas, often offering a great sense of abstraction. His imagery conveys a distinct dichotomy - although we see the powerful drama of natural forces competing against man-made structures, we also appreciate that these structures can exist in harmony with nature.

In this image, a red bridge, a common element in Japanese art, is seen in the distance through a screen of cherry blossoms, which for the Japanese represent the transience of life because of their short bloom cycle.

Shibata had his New York debut in 1992, at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of MOMA's "New Photography" series. The Laurence Miller Gallery hosted his first one-person show here in early 1993, and has represented him ever since. Many museums around the world have featured Shibata's work in solo exhibitions, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; the Kawasaki City Museum; the Sprengel Museum in Hanover; the Centre National de Photographie in Paris; and in the United States - the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. In 2012, there was an expansive two-person show of his work, along with works by the late Japanese painter Toeko Tatsuno, at the National Arts Center in Tokyo. Most recently, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, hosted a 16-month-long show of his work, beginning in April 2013.