The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is proud to announce the opening of Naoya Hatakeyama: Natural Stories, an exhibition of the work of one of Japan’s leading, internationally renowned, photographers.

Hatakeyama was born in the city of Rikuzen Takata, Iwate Prefecture, in 1958. While a student at Tsukuba University, he was inspired by the photographer Ohtsuji Kiyoji to begin working in photography. After completing his master’s degree in art and design at that university, he began his career as a photographer. He received the Kimura Ihee Photography Award in 1997 and was selected to represent Japan in the 2001 Venice Biennale.

For the Natural Stories exhibition, we have brought together photographs from Hatakeyama’s earliest to his recent work that offer a new perspective on the relationships between nature and humanity. Hatakeyama has created a series that treats factories, quarries, mines, and other sites related to two mineral resources, limestone and coal. His work captures scenes people do not often see, vast and at times awe-inspiring. This exhibition, which confronts not only the beauties of nature but also its sometimes incongruous austerity, is an opportunity to consider how the natural and human worlds have both coexisted and clashed.

Image: Naoya Hatakeyama, "Terrils #2607" 2010