These pictures are part of a series called “Blast” taken by Japanese photographer Naoya Hatakeyama, who used remote-control cameras to capture the drama and destruction of Japan’s limestone blasting operations from point-blank range.
Hatakeyama grew up on the northeast coast of Japan, an area rich in limestone, and the quarries and factories associated with limestone processing played a key role in the artist’s understanding of the world. His father worked for a time in a cement factory, and would often take him fishing at a port where quarried limestone was loaded onto ships. After his graduate studies Hatakeyama began photographing these quarries and factories. Intrigued by the daily blasts to free limestone from cliffs, he set out to capture these dramatic explosions in “Blast”, a series he began in 1995.
Instead of using a telephoto lens, which would have offered a remote perspective at a safe distance, he chose a motor-driven Nikon 5 and worked with engineers to determine exactly how close he could place his camera to the explosion without its being hit. Hatakeyama was impressed by the engineers’ ability to predict how the rock would break.
“From having worked with the rock for so many years, they had gained a vision that I could never imagine,” he said. “One could say that they were in dialogue with nature in the form of the rocks.”
“Blast” is one of Hatakeyama’s best-known series and it has been frequently exhibited in museum exhibitions worldwide.
Naoya Hatakeyama Wiki
Naoya Hatakeyama (畠山 直哉 Hatakeyama Naoya, born 1958) was born in 1958 in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Hatakeyama, a student of Kiyoji Otsuji, completed graduate studies at Tsukuba University in 1984. Since then, Hatakeyama has been based in Tokyo, a city which has served as a model from which he has developed a body of work concerned largely with the relationship between nature, the city and photography. In addition to his participation in numerous solo and group exhibitions, Hatakeyama’s photographs are found in public collections including the National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; the Swiss Foundation for Photography, Winterthur; la Maison EuropEéenne de la Photographie, Paris; and the Victoria & Albert.
Awards
1997: 22nd Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award
2000: 16th Higashikawa Domestic Photographer Prize
2001: 42nd Mainichi Award of Art
2003: Photographer of the Year Award from the Photographic Society of Japan
Books By Naoya Hatakeyama
1. Lime Works. Tōkyō: Synergy, 1996. ISBN 4-915877-39-6.
2. Underground. Tōkyō: Media Factory, 2000. ISBN 4-8401-0088-8.
3. Under Construction. Tōkyō: Kenchiku Shiryo Kenkyusha, 2001. ISBN 4-87460-716-0.
4. Slow Glass. United Kingdom: Light Xchange and The Winchester Gallery, 2002. ISBN 1-873451-44-X.
5. 畠山直哉 = Naoya Hatakeyama. Kyōto: Tankōsha, 2002. ISBN 4-473-01920-9.
6. Lime Works. Osaka: Amus Arts Press, 2002. ISBN 4-946483-74-8.
7. Naoya Hatakeyama. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2002. ISBN 3-7757-1159-7.
8. Atmos. Portland, Ore.: Nazraeli Press, 2004. ISBN 1-59005-080-0.
9. Zeche Westfalen I/II Ahlen. Portland, Ore.: Nazraeli Press, 2006. ISBN 1-59005-151-3.
10. Two Mountains – Naoya Hatakeyama and Balthasar Burkhard. Tokyo: Executive Committee of Two Mountains, 2006. ISBN 3-03778-072-X.
11. Scales. Portland, Ore.: Nazraeli Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59005-216-7.
12. Lime Works. Kyōto: Seigensha, 2008. ISBN 978-4-86152-124-9.
13. Terrils. La Madeleine, France: Light Motiv Editions, 2011. ISBN 978-2-9537908-1-8.
14. Ciel Tombé. Kamakura, Japan: Super Labo, 2011. ISBN 978-4-905052-08-1.
15. Kesengawa, Light Motiv, France ISBN 9782953790856
Credit: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art & Wikipedia