shashasha

True to its subtitle “Terroir,” this fourth volume of the Japanese photography and photo-culture magazine “Sha Shin” concerns itself with the relationships between photography and the locations, localities, sceneries and geographic characteristics in which it takes place.

In addition to new series by Ryuichi Ishikawa (“Terroir and Human Shells”), Keiko Sasaoka (“Park City”), Masaru Tatsuki (“KURA: K’s House”), Nao Nakai (“The Time Ruled By Snow”), Soichiro Yamaguchi (“Driving Setouchi”) and Kazutomo Tashiro (“Road to Open Sea”), “Sha Shin Vol. 4” approaches this theme through written contributions, such as essays by Shun Uchibayashi (which examines places and placenames in Japanese photography through the six series), Tomo Kosuga or Manabu Torihara (an account of the importance of locality for the emergence of Japanese photography movements), interviews with Daido Moriyama and Pauline Vermare as well as reviews, critical texts and exhibition reports (including an account of this year’s Kyotographie). Like the previous “Sha Shin” issues, while the magazine is mainly aimed at Japanese readers, this fourth volume again contains a selection of English translations, including all statements by the six photographers as well as essays by Shun Uchibayashi, Manabu Torihara and Kotaro Iizawa.