小林 茂太 | Shigeta KOBAYASHI
https://www.shigetakobayashi.com
info@shigetakobayashi.com
IG @shigetakobayashi0715 / @books_cairn
Artist Statement
物質に刻まれた不可逆な痕跡への関心が、制作の核にある。時間の集積が風景の中に剥き出しになる「露頭」の観察から、制作は始まる。現場でのリサーチと試行を経て、写真を単なる光学的イメージの複製ではなく、物理的な力の衝突を受け止める現象の記録体として再定義した。露頭で起きている巨大な地質作用と、紙や金属、薬品の表面で起きるミクロな物理変化。スケールの異なる領域で生じる力のせめぎ合いを観察し、その痕跡を定着させること。立ち現れた作品それ自体をひとつの新たな露頭と捉え直し、物質と現象がそこに存在する確かさを静かに記述していく。
My artistic practice is rooted in a fascination with irreversible traces engraved on material surfaces. My process begins with the observation of outcrops—sites where layers of accumulated time are exposed within the landscape. Through field research and continuous experimentation, I came to redefine photography not as a tool for duplicating optical images, but as a receptacle that physically absorbs the impact of opposing forces: a physical record of phenomena. I observe the dynamic interplay of forces occurring across vastly different scales—from the massive geological shifts at work in an outcrop to the microscopic physical changes on paper, metal, and chemical surfaces—and fix their traces. Reinterpreting the resulting work itself as a new outcrop, I quietly register the undeniable presence of matter and phenomena.
Biography
1985年新潟県生まれ、現在は埼玉を拠点に活動している写真家である。大学では土木工学を専攻し、卒業後はコマーシャル写真スタジオに勤め、2014年からフリーランスの写真家として独立。当初は、それまで経験してきたことを活かし、コマーシャル写真に注力していたが、その過程で、自身の作品について深く考えるようになった。マイケルシュミットやロバートアダムス、田附勝などの多くの偉大な写真家の作品にふれることで、芸術写真に興味を持ち始め、2018年から作家活動を始めた。2020年に作家として大きく踏み出すことになった作品「cairn」を発表。この作品は、妻との間に子供を授かったことで不安定になった自身のアイデンティティを確かめることをテーマに制作。一人で約一ヶ月間、アイスランドに滞在し見知らぬ土地を「歩く」という身体的な行為を通して、写真というメディアが自身の存在証明のように残ることを感じた。また、写真集として300部を自費出版した。この作品がきっかけとなり現在は、空間に表出した自然や人間の活動の痕跡に着目し、その土地での地質的な出来事や人間の営みのリサーチを通して、想像することでしかうかがい知ることの出来ない物事について、写真を通してアプローチしている。また、2022年には、日本の北アルプスにある山荘で開催された雲ノ平山荘・アーティストインレジデンスに参加するなど、外部プログラムへの参加も積極的である。グラフィックデザイナーの宮添浩司氏と共にbooks cairnを立ち上げ、自身の写真集や制作において参照した写真集、また宮添氏が手掛けた作品集などを扱い、アートブックフェアなどに参加している。
Shigeta Kobayashi(b. 1985) is a photographer currently based in Saitama, Japan. He graduated from Chuo university with a degree in civil engineering and worked for a commercial photography studio before becoming a freelance photographer in 2014. Although his initial focus was on commercial photography, he began to think deeply about his personal work. Around this time period, he started to learn the artworks of photographers such as Michael Schmidt, Robert Adams, and Masaru Tatsuki, and it led him to develop his interest in fine art photography. In 2018, he decided to pursue his career as an artist. In 2020, he exhibited cairn, a body of work which marked a major stepping stone of his career. The work was created with a theme which investigated to confirm his own identity, which had become unstable after the birth of his child with his wife, during a month-long residency in Iceland, and through the physical act of "walking" in an unknown place, he felt that the medium of photography remains as proof of his existence. He published the photobook of 300 copies. This work became the impetus for his current works, in which he focuses on the traces of nature and human activities that appear in spaces. Through his researches into the geological events and human activities on the land, he attempts to create images that can be only imagined otherwise. He has been involved in both public and private programs, such as The Kumonodaira Mountain Hut Artist-in-Residence program at the mountain lodge in the Japanese Northern Alps in 2022. He also launched books cairn, artist collective, with a graphic designer Koji Miyazoe, which carry his own photobooks and books that are designed by Miyazoe at art book fairs and events.
Artist Residencies
2025 Nakanojo Biennale, Gunma, Japan
2022 Kumonodaira Mountain Hut Artist-in-Residence Program, Toyama, Japan
Awards & Grants
2024 Artistic Activity Grant, Kawashima Arts and Culture Foundation, Tokyo
Solo Exhibitions & Two-Person Exhibition
2026 Sediments of Time (Two-person Exhibition), Tokyo, Japan
2025 plateau, LAG (LIVE ART GALLERY), Tokyo, Japan
2022 stratum, LIBRIS KOBACO, Fukuoka, Japan
2022 stratum, book obscura, Tokyo, Japan
2019 AURORA, BOOKS f3, Niigata, Japan
2019 AURORA, ondo kagurazaka, Tokyo, Japan
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Nakanojo Biennale 2025: International Contemporary Art Festival, Gunma, Japan
2025 Diffusion of Nature 2025: The Wavering Distance, GASBON METABOLISM, Yamanashi, Japan
2024 The Hillvale Photo Trophy, Hillvale Gallery, Victoria, Australia
2023 Diffusion of Nature 2023: Soil and Dream, WATOWA GALLERY, Tokyo / GASBON METABOLISM, Yamanashi, Japan
Art Fairs
2025 ART FAIR BEPPU 2025, Oita, Japan
Publications (Artist Books)
2025 imprint matters, books cairn
2024 plateau, books cairn
2024 arawa-re 001, books cairn
2023 chi to, books cairn
2022 stratum, books cairn
2021 (Founded the independent label "books cairn")
2020 yoha, Self-published
2020 cairn, Self-published
2018 AURORA, Self-published
Education 2008 B.E. in Civil Engineering, Chuo University, Tokyo