Shore Yuki Shimizu

This is the debut photobook by Yuki Shimizu, an artist who is both a photographer and a novelist. For a decade, Shimizu has captured sites centered around water: rivers where legends tell of princesses transforming into dragon gods, ponds of sacrifice, lakes that purify toxins, and rain-making festivals. His journey has taken him from people singing in celebration of water to the ruins of oasis towns and deserts where ancient lakes once sat. By weaving together these photographs with records of water-related legends and natural disasters, he has constructed a virtual world accompanied by his own writings. By layering image and word, Shimizu seeks to manifest an entirely new kind of landscape.

Water is an essential element for human life, yet it can instantly transform into a source of great calamity through floods and tsunamis. Consequently, humans have deified rivers and glimpsed monsters in the depths of the sea. By re-examining our existence through the surface of a lake or the historical interaction between humans and water, he explores the urgent narratives of beings caught within the water cycle.

This volume is an in-depth investigation of "water" from the dual perspectives of photography and literature, fusing the written word with an abstract, mysterious space-time created through the lens. The book also features experimental works where negative film has been corroded by mold and seawater. Through these methods, Shimizu explores the potential of photography as a device to listen to the voices of others and the layers of history accumulated within a landscape.