At the Tidal Flats Kiyoshi Niiyama

At the Tidal Flats" is a series of photographs taken by Kiyoshi Niiyama (1911-1969) on the Imazu Beach in his hometown of Ehime, Japan. After returning to his hometown after the war, Niiyama one day came across a strange scene of tidal flats created by nature and the climate. He was able to take only 20 or so negatives within a few hours before the tide rose, and although he visited the Imazu Beach many times after that, he never saw such a scene again. The book includes 15 vintage prints that Niiyama himself completed from the negatives. The book also provides a glimpse into the angles of view and composition of Niiyama's graphical sensibility, which is highly regarded as subjectivist photography, as well as the historical background of photography at the time. We believe that it is a valuable series of photographs that can be a documentation of the state of the Imazu Beach, which has now been reclaimed and transformed, as well as of the climate and this rare phenomena at that time. The richness of the natural environment of the sea at that time, which overflows from the photographs, and the joy of Niiyama in witnessing it. The photographs are full of the abundance of natural marine life of the time, and the joy of witnessing it.