shashasha

Shiho Yoshida’s photobook operates within the context of the modern possibilities of the image. Even within photography, there are clear differences in potential, quantity, ubiquity and meaning compared to photographs of only a few decades ago.

For the photobook “Survey; Mountains,” Yoshida explored both the subject of the mountain as well as the modern position of the image. Through complex combinations of different photographic techniques, Yoshida’s book approaches mountains from different angles and methods, including the virtual space of Google Maps, internet image searches as well as exhibition views and photographs of real life locations, and explores how these approaches affect the perception of the captured subject.
The book includes an essay by cultural studies scholar Hiroki Yamamoto (included in Japanese and in English translation).

“What meaning is there in what at first glance is a meaningless act (i.e., how is it possible to ’survey’ something that is neither real nor virtual)? To [me] it appears that for Yoshida, that meaning lies in attempting to give form through art to this uncertain world we live in. And perhaps she is relying on the contours she is thus given to survey (measure) the distance between herself and the world.”
― from Hiroki Yamamoto’s essay