Toshio Shibata: Japan

Spanning the career of one of Japan’s most revered photographers, this monograph— the only English-language volume of its kind—features exquisitely detailed full- page images that capture the relationship between human-made structures and the natural world.

Toshio Shibata’s large-format contemporary landscapes are distinguished by their haunting beauty, graceful composition, and meticulous detail.

Using long exposures, and eliminating any references to people, horizons, or identifying geographic reference points, Shibata captures structures such as dams, bridges, reservoirs, and roads as they interact with their natural settings—mountainsides, rivers, forests and fields. The results are highlighted by painterly composition; filled with patterns, lines, and fluid action; and unmistakably Japanese in their aesthetic.

Curated and with commentary by Phillip Prodger, one of the most erudite and critical voices in contemporary photography, this book will appeal both to fans of Shibata’s work as well as an audience that has yet to discover his remarkable oeuvre.

PHILLIP PRODGER has served as head of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and was the founding curator of photography at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. He is currently executive director of the firm Curatorial Exhibitions in Los Angeles. His previous books include William Eggleston Portraits, Martin Parr: Only Human, and An Alternative History of Photography, published by Prestel.