Toshio Shibata

I'm not entirely sure why, but my tutor suggested that I look at the work of Toshio Shibata a contemporary Japanese photographer - and I'm very glad he did.

I have a high regard for what little I know of Japanese art and what I do know seems to have some parallels and that is maybe why I am drawn to Shibata's work. Until now I had been aware of Japanese literature in the form of (amongst others) Ishiguro and Murakami, both of whom I have read (I think) all they have had published. The link between them is the West. Ishiguro moved as a child to the UK and is now a UK citizen, Murakami travelled extensively and lived in the USA whilst Shibata studied in Belgium. I wonder if I find it easier to connect to these artists because of their sensitisation to Western culture? It is true that Ishiguro is the least "Japanese" of the three, the others having resettled back in Japan, but both Murakami and Shibata created work whilst in the West - something to think about later.

Shibata studied fine art at the Royal Academy Ghent and started to use the camera as part of his creative process. The camera, and the mages he created with it, started to become his metier and is now his primary form of image creation. Later Shibata was impressed by the work of American photographers such as Adams at an exhibition in Paris and later, when he went to America he found others, such as Weston and Meyerowitz - these were to become a major influence on his later work.

When he returned to Japan he started to photograph mainly at night, at toll booths and garages - as below.

These shots are typical of his early period and are dissimilar with his oeuvre that he has become synonymous with. It is interesting that he was unafraid of using negative space in these shots and there is very little in his later work.

Note the lack of Sky!

However, the work that has brought him attention is his "Infrastructure" project; it is monumental in scale, in fact the subjects are so large that they are in danger of losing their proportions in the frame and the viewer is constantly looking to reinforce the understanding of the photograph by looking for a scale reference. Shibata notes in an interview (referenced below) that the Japanese are proud of their  infrastructure projects, they positively rejoice having one in their own back yard - no nimbyism here! - and it is worthwhile noting also that Shibata is taking (see note on not being able to make a photograph) his images from completely accessible places - I wonder if they would be cordoned off in the West?

 These hugely impressive photographs are exactly that to me - huge in scale but dispassionate, they adhere to a some of the very basics in composition: diagonals for dynamism, thirds and  symmetry for balance. But, they do not show the sky at all. I have looked to try and find some evidence of the sky and I found one picture that had a twilight sky. The night shots do not have any detail in the black space above the subjects - just a curious point.

Toshio Shibata quoted as below;

I employ a particular kind of sensitivity for approaching landscapes and sceneries like still lives. It's in way as if I was placing them right in the palm of may hand for examination. That's why I never included the sky. Showing the sky would mean going back to depicting landscapes.

There are a few other things that I always keep in mind when photographing. Grasping the subject matter instantaneously, for example, and leaving the scene before beginning to think about the subject's meaning.

I also avoid gathering too much information about the location of a shoot. Not letting knowledge affect the work is essential. And ultimately, I'm eradicating my own presence, as ideally I only exist as something that quietly releases the shutter between the film and the subject. 
This is how I try not to charge my photographs with emotion, but present the subject matter plainly, as I believe that this method takes me to new and unknown areas that I can explore. I'm considering photography as a medium that involves these kinds of possibilities.

My works are sometimes classified as abstract photography. I am in fact keen to depict my subjects faithfully and without missing out the tiniest details, so this idea seems a little odd.

Abstractness in photography surely does not refer to superficial elimination imitating the characteristic presentational forms and features of abstract painting. On the contrary, I would rather say that it's about a variety of connotations and possible interpretations evoked in the imagination from a distance that is created by depicting the subject matter in as plain and impassive a manner as possible.


Note in the above quote - first paragraph That's why I never included the sky. Showing the sky would mean going back to depicting landscapes. Yet his books have the titles "Landscape" and "Landscape 2". 


It is both curious and interesting to me that both Murakami and Shibata have abstraction/surrealism a base element in their art. Murakami is a great aficionado of Jazz - he ran a Jazz club for a long time in Tokyo and his affection for modern jazz from the likes of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane whose abstractions would have been very different to the rigid formality of Japanese culture, both then and now. 


Shibata's imagery, by his own admission is dispassionate, devoid of emotion, a record - all of which is very typical of Japanese culture - he is very careful NOT to place himself, or his shadow, in the picture. It has nothing to with him. These images, that he says could be held in the palm of one's hand, are in reality, huge human projects to wrestle with nature, to attempt to tame it. He doesn't attempt to comment on the image and I don't think he intends to celebrate it either - they seem more like statements of fact, abstracted from their position, without reference in many cases to depict their enormity.


http://www.eyecurious.com/interview-with-toshio-shibata/


http://www.someslashthings.com/blog/toshio-shibata-dams-in-somethings-magazine-chapter004.html




"The only elements that you can control are contrast and tonality, light essentially. With painting all the 'unnecessary' parts in a scene can be eliminated. With photography, you just have to accept what is there. That is where the difficulty of photography lies. Photography is not something that you can make. It cannot be forced. You have to accept the subject. "  http://www.eyecurious.com/interview-with-toshio-shibata/