Born in 1977, Gentaro Ishizuka was awarded the Newcomer’s Prize of the Photographic Society of Japan in 2004, and was a recipient of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Overseas Artists Fellowship in 2011. In 2014, he won the Higashikawa New Photographer Award for his photo collection “PIPELINE ICELAND/ ALASKA” (published by Kodansha), which is a compilation of his early work. In 2016, he won the Grand Prix at the Steidl Book Award Japan, and “GOLD RUSH ALASKA” is scheduled to be published by Steidl in Germany. In recent years, he has been creating works that encourage a reinterpretation of spatiality in photographic expression in the age of social networking services (SNS), where photography has been incorporated into plain information, such as three-dimensional objects made of photographic paper and mosaic-like works created by weaving photographic paper into multiple layers.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background as an artist? 

I work primarily in the field of contemporary art, using the medium of photography. I studied French literature at Waseda University in Tokyo, but dropped out after starting to work as a photographer for advertisements and magazine job while still in school. Currently, I am working on textile works and three-dimensional works using photographic paper which developing the photographic emulsion itself by myself, aiming to expand the concept of photography. 

This year, a book of my long-cherished photographs will be published by Steidl in Germany.

How do you select the materials you work with, and how do they shape your artistic vision? 

Although digital cameras have replaced most photography, I still love the darkroom process of creating photographs, and I create my work in the dark. Specifically, I load color negatives into a large 8×10-inch camera, develop the negatives, and use the negatives to make prints for large installations. 

Even setting aside the issue of quality, compared to digital photography, which is very simple and can produce highly detailed images, the process of shooting with analog film is a complicated, delicate, and materialistic act that may surprise those who are not familiar with it. I feel that in the darkroom, the primordial human desire to capture images is hidden.

I feel that if we only deal with data in the digital process, I will not be able to use our intuition, which is very important, and in order to use my intuition, It is necessary to immerse myself in materials.

What role do you believe art plays in social and cultural change? 

In a very simplified way, I believe that artistic understanding includes many understandings that transcend language, and that they are an opportunity to bridge the gap between generations, gender, wealth, nationality, past and future, dreams and reality, human and animal, and many other things.

How has your artistic style evolved over time? 

At the beginning of my career, I wanted to document the world through photography, and I wandered the world in search of themes and motifs to do so. In the process, I came across the landscape of the pipeline that traverses 1,300 kilometers through Alaska and the historical fields of the late 19th century gold rush that took place all over the world. 

What I am interested in now is the history of the photographic medium itself, as well as the history of the world itself, and I am considering an attempt to deconstruct photography, which has a history of nearly 200 years, from the inside out. Specifically, I am questioning the flatness that is an absolute requirement of photography, weaving photographic paper, using photographic paper to create three-dimensional works, and even engineering the chemical image-making process inside of a photograph, the emulsion that is the source of the color photographic image, by myself.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience? 

It is to make a book. Then, it is to create an installation of space.

What projects are you currently working on, and what can we expect from you in the future? 

The project is going on to track coastal glaciers in Alaska, Norway, Patagonia, and other regions that continue to retreat due to global warming, using human-powered sea kayaks. The project is called “Glacier Diary” and has been ongoing for 15 years. It is an attempt to make a huge natural object beyond human knowledge a private matter, and at one point it took about two weeks to record the approach to the glacier from civilization, little by little, bit by bit. 

These will lead to a solo exhibition at my gallery in Tokyo and a solo exhibition at the Nara Municipal Museum of Art in 2026.

Text & photo courtesy of Gentaro Ishizuka

Website: http://gentaroishizuka.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nomephoto/?hl=ja