LANDSCAPE

Toshio Shibata’s signature series LANDSCAPE captures retaining walls and erosion-control dams built into Japan’s mountain valleys, rendered through highly structured compositions. These walls and dams, products of Japan’s advanced civil engineering, embody a striking sense of symmetry and beauty. Yet at the same time, as artificial constructions fundamentally at odds with nature, they serve as a symbol of the “landscape of modern Japan.” This portfolio presents six collotypes from the series, photographed between 1989 and 1990 in Niigata, Fukushima, Miyazaki, and Tochigi.