Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, where giant skyscrapers spike out of the ground as cars with
their sleek metallic bodies weave incessantly at their feet . . . But when I walk these
towering megalopolises with camera in hand, I discover that through the viewfinder other,
doubled images begin to emerge.
Stepping inside a cavernous shopping gallery, I am greeted by a manmade sky arching
overhead and manmade fountains and even streams artfully laid out below. As pleasant as
they are, these artificial landscapes no longer give home to those earth spirits whom we
humans knew so intimately from old.
When these and other urban textures mirror the sky and clouds and sun—the only real
nature to grace the city—it is as though some oracle were giving pronouncement on the
place’s fate.
With expanses of barren concrete locking away the mother soil underneath, a great
metropolis is certainly not somewhere living things are meant to flourish. For its human
inhabitants, though, it does hold out the limitless hope that here they might be relieved
of all possible fetters and soar free. To feed that illusory dream, endless quantities of
energy must be pumped into the cities.
True, the development of cities has led to tremendous advances in human diversity and
creativity. But now that their magnitude is swelling close to the limit, the time has come
to rethink their existence, from the ground up.
Yoichi Nagata is a Tokyo based photographer. He studied photography at Eikoh Hosoe workshop. He worked as a commercial photographer, and a commercial works such as Shu Uemura Cosmetics and Shiseido etc. published in Graphis Posters and Advertising Photography in Japan. and also in the collection of Shiseido Gallery.
Awards Awards:
“Center Forward” The Center for Fine Art Photography Director’s Honorable Mention 2011
“Natural World” The Center for Fine Art Photography Director’s Honorable Mention 2010
Critical Mass 2010 finalist
IPA 5 Honorable Mention
PX3 2010 Second Prize in Fine Art People
Roberto Del Carlo Lucca digital Photo contest09 finalist
PX3 2009 2 Honorable Mention
Exhibition:
"Star of the Stars" The Center for Fine Art Photography (U.S.A.) 2011
“Center Forward” Denver International Airport 2011 June~October
“Center Forward” The Center for Fine Art Photography(U.S.A.) 2011 May~June.
“Earthwork” Central Booking Gallery(N.Y. U.S.A.) 2011 April~June.
“Natural World” The Center for Fine Art Photography(U.S.A.) 2010 Dec.
“Digital10 Planet Earth” New York Hall of Science 2010 Oct.
“Celine Wu & Yoichi Nagata in Kontraste” Micheko Galerie (Germany) 2010 Jun.
“Poster&Poster” Art Rush Gallery, Tokyo, 1999
