Production group Gallery

GENPATSU : a landscape transcend time

GENPATSU (Nuclear power plants)
inevitably shape the landscape.
It’s transcend time and stay where it is.

 

In Japan, 59 nuclear power plants have been constructed, but more than 20 plants have already been decided to retire so far.

But, their retirement plan is unclear because they always imply technical and social issues.Many of them will likely stay where they are now longer than they are supposed to be.

Hence, they become a landscape.

I’ ve covered so many issues related to nuclear plants such as facilily equipment failure and anti-nuke campaign, etc., since I was a news reporter.

But, the argument has never been ending and nobody found a right answer, then public opinion has been playing on the politicians who have power from time to time.

What the hell are nuclear plants?

I am a retired news reporter, but my curiosity about nuclear plants has never been changed.

To know what they are and to see how they are there, I’ve been touring nuclear plans around Japan and capturing them as a landscape.

To figure out the true nature of nuclear power plants, I’ve adopted an antique printing technique called Van Dyke brown print, which eliminates color and lacks detailed depiction.

These constructions in the brownish screens are objects for present, for the past, or for the future?

Nuclear plants captured by an antique printing technique transend time and stay where they are.

April 2023
Maco (Masahiro Yabuta)

 

 

GENPATSU : a landscape transcend time
KG+ 2023 KYOTOGRAPHIE Official Program
Period: April 11-23, 2023
Venue: Gallery Hillgate
Sanjo Agaru, Teramachi, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto

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Shizuo Kanamura

1946
Born in Kyoto
2006 –
Retired as Representative Director of INTEC
2017 –
Entered department of Photography at Kyoto University of Art and Design (current: Kyoto University of the Arts)
2018 – 2019
Completed Photography Research Course and Classical Print Course at Shashin Hyogen Daigaku (University of Photographic Expression)
(Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture)
2020 –
Started study of classical photography techniques in the group of Kumiko Wakabayashi
October 2021
Participated in the group exhibition The First “Classical photograph” (at Osaka Central Public Hall, Osaka-city)
And participated in many other group exhibitions

Shizuo is also a marathon runner, and won the second place in the senior section of Boston Marathon and received many titles in other marathons.
He likes to take photographs wherever he visits for running. His mountain and Mongolia series are among his best-known works.

*Profile photo is cited from https://weblog.hochi.co.jp/runners/2016/01/post-52b6.html

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Masahiro Yabuta｜Manhatta-n (2021) ～Draw a multi-layered city, its “shape”～

Production Concept

Manhatta-n (2021) – Multi-layered city: drawing its “shapes” –

Manhattan, the land of dreams, has been attracting people from all over the world since the 19th century. The skyline created by skyscrapers, the straight streets intersecting at right angles, the cars and diverse people passing by there…the gap between the recorded images of 100 years ago and the present is surprisingly small. Not only external appearance, but also intangible elements such as freedom, affluence, and fusion of human races, languages and cultures have been passed down through the generations, which shape the image of this city.

To express the image of the city that has been deposited over a long period of time like a stratum, Van Dyke brown was adopted for printing process, one of the classical photographic techniques. The city and its people were recorded by omitting colors and drawing the “shapes”; with brown outlines. Men gathering on stairs, a woman crossing a show window, street performers in a park, and other people living in the present were blended into this layered city and reproduced on photographic paper. Many unpredictable manual processes of Van Dyke printing, such as slippage of the brush when applying chemicals and delicate length of the exposure were completed to create one of a kind print which established timeless “Manhattan”.

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