Naoya Hatakeyama

For the past thirty years, Japanese photographer Naoya Hatakeyama has undertaken a photographic examination of the life of cities and the built environment.

Each of his series focuses on a different facet of the growth and transformation of the urban landscape?from studies of architectural maquettes to the extraction and use of natural materials such as limestone, as it is quarried via explosive blasts and subsequently incorporated into the construction of new buildings. In particular, Hatakeyama has routinely returned to the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis, exploring this ever-evolving urban sprawl from both below and above, mapping the growth and expansion of these sites over time. Additional series focus on other forms of human intervention with the landscape and natural materials, including factories and building sites in Japan and abroad.

Finally, his most recent photographs of his hometown of Rikuzentakata, a fishing town that was almost completely destroyed by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, are also included?an ongoing series begun almost immediately following the disaster. These photographs hauntingly embody the death and rebirth of the city, manifesting a deeply personal connection to the ongoing intersection of geology, architecture, and time.

About the Author

Naoya Hatakeyama’s photographs have been widely exhibited in the US, Europe, and Japan. He corepresented Japan in the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, and was given his first solo museum exhibition outside of Japan in 2002 at Kunstverein Hannover. He joined the architect Toyo Ito and others in their efforts on the Golden Lion award–winning exhibition Architecture. Possible here? “Home-for-All,” representing Japan in the 13th Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2012. A solo exhibition of the work, organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2012. His work is included in the 2017 Yokohama Triennale. Hatakeyama lives in Tokyo, Japan.