Rikuzentakata 2011-2014 by Naoya Hatakeyama 陸前高田 2011‐2014 畠山直哉

Naoya Hatakeyama, born in 1958 in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, studied under Seiji Otsuji at Tsukuba University’s College of Art and Design, and is a Tokyo-based photographer whose work focuses on the relationship between nature, cities, and photography. 1997 won the 22nd Ihei Kimura Photography Award for his photo book “LIME WORKS” and his photo exhibition “Urban Maquette.” He has exhibited both in Japan and abroad, and his participation in the Venice Biennale in 2001 was one opportunity for him to become one of the most highly acclaimed Japanese photographers in the world.
This book is a collection of photographs of his hometown, Rikuzentakata, which he photographed for about four years immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011), after losing his own mother in the tsunami. The book contains 71 color photographs of Rikuzentakata, which are vast and delicate, as well as a long essay. In it, the photographer candidly describes his own feelings about the heavy time he spent visiting and photographing Rikuzentakata after the tsunami, which cannot be combined with any other time. The fear of instantly losing the rural landscape and family where he spent his childhood, the sense of loss, and the changes that occurred in his work. This is a very important work in which his previous themes of “nature, city, and photography” intersect with his own experiences.

1958年岩手県陸前高田市生まれの畠山直哉は、筑波大学芸術専門学群にて大辻清司に師事したのち、東京を拠点に自然・都市・写真の関係性を軸に活動している写真家。1997年に写真集「LIME WORKS」、写真展「都市のマケット」により第22回木村伊兵衛写真賞を受賞。国内外で展示を重ね、2001年にはヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレへの参加を一つの機会に、世界的に最も高い評価を得る日本の写真家の一人である。
本書は、東日本大震災(2011)による津波で自身の母を失った彼が、震災直後から約4年間撮影し続けた故郷・陸前高田の写真集。カラー71点の広大で繊細な写真とともに、長文エッセイを収録。そこには、大津波の後陸前高田を訪れ、撮影した際の重たい時間を、他の時間と一緒にすることができないという、写真家自身の気持ちが率直に語られている。子供時代を過ごした田園風景と家族を一瞬で失う恐怖、喪失感、作品に起こった変化。彼の以前からのテーマ「自然・都市・写真」が彼自身の経験と交差する、非常に重要な一作。