EXHIBITION

6th - 24th March 2025

Soko IchiriAtsuto Shimada

I have repeatedly shown photos taken in my native land of the Boso Peninsula. This time, my aim was an exhibition that would be a summation of the prints I had shown in the past. However, I cannot dispel the feeling that those selected here are too inept and lacking to be a summation. Come to think of it, I have always felt this sense of lacking.
The scenes I photographed are no more than fragments of the land, and they are severed from the unbroken flow of time there as well. While I have been doing this, time continues to flow in Boso, and surely all sorts of scenes are unfolding. It is impossible to observe them all and perceive each individually from multiple angles.
When I look at the photos comprised of these fragments, it conjures up an inner world just like the space between the lines on a page. Though that world could never compensate for the sense of lacking, that nowhere place feels like a refuge.
The Boso Peninsula as it truly is cannot be found here, and this will never be more than a subjective view of what I saw.
However, though fragmentary, it can be a faithful record of certain places at certain times.
I wish to continue engaging with photography through Boso, accepting this unfillable lack, and yet fighting against it.That path resembles the repeated answer of "just one more ri*" no matter how far you go.


*When asking the local people in Boso for directions, they will answer, "It's just one more ri (a distance of about 2.4 miles) that way," but you will hear the same response no matter how far you go, without ever getting there. The woodblock print artist Utagawa Hiroshige composed the verse, "The people of Kazusa said the rapeseed flowers are just one more ri away again today," while in his novel Kokoro, Natsume Soseki wrote, "Tortured in the heat of the sun, we walked on, deceived by the people of Kazusa who always replied to our question that our destination lay within two miles."

Atsuto Shimada (Instagram)
Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1989. Graduated from the Department of Photography, Faculty of Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2011. Since 2011, he has focused his photography on the Boso Peninsula, creating gelatin silver print works developed and printed by himself. Since 2019, when his current techniques and style were established, he has repeatedly presented his works under the title "Soko Ichiri." more