Risaku Suzuki: Between the Sea and the Mountain – Kumano

The theme of this book is to capture the landscape before myth was born, that is, the world before humans gave it meaning.The book begins at the sea and follows the Kumano Kodo, a path that has been carved into the mountains by nature and human activity over a long period of time.

Suzuki sets up a tripod, assembles a large-format camera (Deardorff 8x10), and begins to photograph. It takes a considerable amount of time before he presses the shutter, and during that time he remains present, surrendering himself to the changes in the environment, such as light, wind, sound, and humidity. This creative approach, the polar opposite of immediacy, demonstrates a deep awareness of the medium of photography itself in an age where digital images are rampant.

The Kumano landscapes, photographed repeatedly at the same locations, always emerge as new experiences. These are not photographs taken to record a place, but images resulting from contact with the world. Through the two acts of shooting and editing, the fragmented images come together, evoking new times and memories.
This book is a condensed version of Suzuki Risaku's thoughts and feelings, giving the reader the feeling of witnessing the moment a myth is born.

[Title] Between the Sea and the Mountain – Kumano
[Publisher] Amanasalto
[Publication date] February 10, 2015 (first edition) Limited to 400 copies
[Number of pages] 56 pages
[Size] Approx. 454*318*13mm, 1299g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title reading] Yama to umi no Aida
[Authors/Editors] Risaku Suzuki (Author), Bonnie Pong-Wai Ma (Editor ) , Shin Akiyama (Designer)
[Printing] Amana/Printing, Live Art Books/Daishinsha/Binding
[ISBN] None
[Condition] Used, signed in silver pen on front endpaper [5], average condition (fading on front and back covers, slight fading on top edge)
[Accessories] None
[Featured books]
[Related Exhibition] 2016 "Between the Sea and the Mountains," Taka Ishii Gallery Photography, Paris (Paris)

Risaku Suzuki

Born in Shingu City, Wakayama Prefecture in 1963.
Graduated from the Graduate School of Tokyo College of Photography in 1987.

He began working with photography in the late 1980s.
In 1998, he published his first photo book, "KUMANO," which focused on his hometown, Kumano.
His next work, PILES OF TIME (1999), was highly praised as an ambitious work that depicts the journey to a sacred site as a series of photographs reminiscent of a road movie, and won the 25th Kimura Ihei Photography Award in 2000.

Since then, while continuing to make Kumano his life's work, he has continued to create works centered around fundamental questions about the act of "seeing" itself, with themes such as Mont Sainte-Victoire in the south of France, Cézanne's studio, cherry blossoms, snow, and the surface of water. In 2006, he received the Higashikawa Domestic Artist Award, the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award in 2008, and the Sagamihara Photography Award in 2015. In 2010, he formed the "Photographic Secession" group with photographers and critics of his generation.

His major photo books include "KUMANO" (Korinsha Publishing), "PILES OF TIME" (Korinsha Publishing), "Kumano Snow Cherry Blossoms" (Tankosha), "Between the Sea and the Mountains" (amanasalto), "SAKURA" and "White" (edition nord), "Atelier of Cézanne" (Nazraeli Press), "Water Mirror" (Case Publishing), and "Étude" (Super Lab). His works are held in the collections of museums both in Japan and abroad, including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and ICP. He is a professor at the Department of Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts.

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Risaku Suzuki
Large format camera