Oversized boards in slipcase, 43 x 35.5 cm
ISBN:
9781590050811
Toshio Shibata’s Dam (Nazraeli Press, 2004) operates as a monumental culmination of his decades-long investigation into the uneasy convergence of civil engineering and the natural landscape. Shifting his large-format lens across both the American West and his native Japan, Shibata strips away the overt political or environmental critique often associated with industrial topographics. Instead, he treats colossal infrastructure, hydroelectric barriers, concrete erosion netting, and retaining walls, as inherent elements of a new geologic reality. Within his broader oeuvre, this project solidifies his departure from pure nature photography, presenting human intervention not as a scar, but as a structural evolution of the earth's surface.
The visual language of the book is characterized by an abstract, flattened monumentality. By eliminating skies, horizons, and recognizable scales of reference, Shibata isolates the geometric rhythms of poured concrete against the organic chaos of water and rock. The resulting compositions are highly graphic, emphasizing the structural weight and spatial dynamics of these engineering marvels. The sheer scale of the oversized 14-by-17-inch volume, coupled with the rich, deep blacks of the duotone plates, transforms these utilitarian barriers into majestic, almost calligraphic abstractions that dominate the viewer's field of vision.
Toshio Shibata’s Dam (Nazraeli Press, 2004) operates as a monumental culmination of his decades-long investigation into the uneasy convergence of civil engineering and the natural landscape. Shifting his large-format lens across both the American West and his native Japan, Shibata strips away the overt political or environmental critique often associated with industrial topographics. Instead, he treats colossal infrastructure, hydroelectric barriers, concrete erosion netting, and retaining walls, as inherent elements of a new geologic reality. Within his broader oeuvre, this project solidifies his departure from pure nature photography, presenting human intervention not as a scar, but as a structural evolution of the earth's surface.
The visual language of the book is characterized by an abstract, flattened monumentality. By eliminating skies, horizons, and recognizable scales of reference, Shibata isolates the geometric rhythms of poured concrete against the organic chaos of water and rock. The resulting compositions are highly graphic, emphasizing the structural weight and spatial dynamics of these engineering marvels. The sheer scale of the oversized 14-by-17-inch volume, coupled with the rich, deep blacks of the duotone plates, transforms these utilitarian barriers into majestic, almost calligraphic abstractions that dominate the viewer's field of vision.
Toshio Shibata’s Dam (Nazraeli Press, 2004) operates as a monumental culmination of his decades-long investigation into the uneasy convergence of civil engineering and the natural landscape. Shifting his large-format lens across both the American West and his native Japan, Shibata strips away the overt political or environmental critique often associated with industrial topographics. Instead, he treats colossal infrastructure, hydroelectric barriers, concrete erosion netting, and retaining walls, as inherent elements of a new geologic reality. Within his broader oeuvre, this project solidifies his departure from pure nature photography, presenting human intervention not as a scar, but as a structural evolution of the earth's surface.
The visual language of the book is characterized by an abstract, flattened monumentality. By eliminating skies, horizons, and recognizable scales of reference, Shibata isolates the geometric rhythms of poured concrete against the organic chaos of water and rock. The resulting compositions are highly graphic, emphasizing the structural weight and spatial dynamics of these engineering marvels. The sheer scale of the oversized 14-by-17-inch volume, coupled with the rich, deep blacks of the duotone plates, transforms these utilitarian barriers into majestic, almost calligraphic abstractions that dominate the viewer's field of vision.