HOKKAIDO: Sakuan, Matapaan

Takehiko NAKAFUJI

The photographs in high contrast black and white are recognizably from the tradition of Japanese photography. Nakafuji's predecessor Moriyama made a brutal vision of a feral frontier land in “Hokkaido” while wrestling with his personal demons in the 1970s. In contrast, Nakafujis photographs of Hokkaido seem to me hopeful and expansive. It is in his photographs of the megalopolis of Tokyo that Nakafujis work reveals alienation. In “Sakuan, Matapaan” the roads, the railways, the sea, the streets of the towns lead to another place, where the search continues for attachment, for that elusive love.

Sakuan: Summer coming
Matapaan: Winter coming

Book Size
182 x 257 mm
Pages
52 pages each book
38 photos (Matapaan)
38 photos (Sakuan) reproductions
Binding
Softcover, 2 books in a box
Publication Date
2013
Language
English, Japanese
Limited Edition
1000

Artist Profile

Takehiko NAKAFUJI

Born in 1970, Tokyo, Takehiko Nakafuji dropped out from Waseda University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and graduated from the Photography Department of Tokyo Visual Arts College. He continues to publish his works of street photography, mainly in monochrome, and travels in and out of Japan for photo coverage jobs, including countries in Eastern Europe, Russia and Cuba. While Nakafuji is active as a photographer, he is also the owner of Gallery Niepce in Yotsuya, Tokyo. He has won the 29th Higashikawa Special Photographer Award for his series ‘Sakuan Matapaan - Hokkaido’ in 2013, and the 24th Hayashi Tadahiko Award for his series ‘STREET RAMBLER’ in 2015. His works are included in the collection of Kiyosato Photo Art Museum, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and Shunan City Museum of Art and History.

Gallery Exhibitions