Naoya Hatakeyama

Naoya Hatakeyama shot his River Series while standing in the shallow water of a canalized river that runs straight through Tokyo. Beneath the bustle and expanse of the metropolis, this stream seems to be a hidden and isolated world. The perspective from the straight walls of the embankments gives the image an almost symbolically horizontal dichotomy—the world above, the world below. Other work by Hatakeyama consists of photographs (e.g. the series Blast) showing land reclamations and excavations carried out with the aid of explosives. The desolate and damaged landscape bears the scars of human intervention but nonetheless has its own sense of romance and beauty.