Kashima Town, Fukushima Prefecture, 1990
Gelatin silver print
24 × 20 inches
Edition of 25
Signed, stamped, and editioned 22/25 on verso
Please inquire about other sizes
June 8, 2026
Beautifully rendered with a long exposure, the water pouring over a spillway is transformed into a sleek array of threads resembling cotton on a loom. In the 1980s, the intersection of nature and human engineering became the primary focus of Toshio Shibata's photography. Because Japan is a mountainous country relying on a vast network of dams to manage its steeply descending rivers, water emerged as a central subject in his work—both as a force and a phenomenon.
Shibata's black-and-white photography highlights the early inspiration he drew from Edward Weston's abstraction of natural forms. Shibata's own embrace of abstraction reveals a gift for composition that avoids romantic clichés while exquisitely portraying the elemental forces that are at work in his pictures.
