Shigeta KOBAYASHI
小林茂太
https://www.shigetakobayashi.com
info@shigetakobayashi.com
Artist Statement
My artistic practice is centered on the concept of "traces"—the accumulation of natural phenomena and human activities layered over time and inscribed into physical matter. The origin of my work traces back to a 2018 residency in Iceland. There, I experienced a simultaneous sense of awe toward the vast, overwhelming landscape and a profound sense of relief at the sight of anonymous stone cairns piled along the trails. This experience led me to bridge the geological concept of an "outcrop"—a visible exposure of bedrock—with the fundamental nature of photography, where hidden phenomena are rendered visible. Since then, I have explored various manifestations of "arawa-re" (emergence/exposure) within the landscape. Drawing on my background in Civil Engineering, I perceive recording media not merely as tools for capturing visual information, but as "physical receptors" that embrace the structure and contours of the subject. My perspective, which views the collision of light onto a photosensitive surface as a form of trace, has evolved into a more direct approach: physically pressing metal sheets against rock surfaces to "mold" their form. Through this act of creating irreversible imprints on a substrate, I fix the reality of contact with the subject. Through the accumulation of these actions, I seek to quietly explore the inherent tension between nature and humanity, and the certainty of matter simply existing in its place.
自然の営みや人間の活動が、時間と共に積層し、物質に刻まれた「痕跡」に関心を持っている。2018年のアイスランド滞在時、広大な自然への畏怖と、トレイルの脇に積まれた石の塊への安堵を同時に経験したことが、私の制作の原点となった。この体験から、地質学的な「露頭」という概念を、隠れていた事象が顕在化する写真の本質へと重ね合わせ、風景の中に立ち上がる「露れ」の諸相を捉えてきた。土木工学を専攻した背景から、記録媒体を対象の構造や起伏を受け止める「物理的な受容体」として捉えている。感光面に光が衝突する現象を一種の痕跡と見なす視点は、現在、金属板を岩石に直接押し当ててその形を写し取るという、より直接的なアプローチへと繋がっている。支持体へ物理的に跡を残すという行為を通じて、対象との接触の事実を定着させる。その積み重ねの先に、自然と人間の間に流れる緊張感や、物質がそこに在ることの確かさを、静かに探り続けていきたい。
Books
plateau, books cairn, 2024
露れ araware 001, books cairn, 2024
池塘 chi to, books cairn, 2023
stratum, books cairn, 2022
yoha, self-published, 2020
cairn, self-published, 2020
AURORA, self-published, 2018
Solo Exhibition
plateau, LAG(LIVE ART GALLERY), Tokyo Japan, January 2025
stratum, LIBRIS KOBACO, Fukuoka Japan, June 2022
stratum, book obscura, Tokyo Japan, April 2022
AURORA, BOOKS f3, Niigata Japan, November 2019
AURORA, ondo kagurazaka, Tokyo Japan, May 2019
Group Exhibition
Nakanojo Biennale International Contemporary Art Festival, Gunma Japan, September - October 2025
Kumonodaira Mountain Hut Artist-in-Residence Program Exhibition "Diffusion of Nature 2025 The Wavering Distance", GASBON METABOLISM, Yamanashi Japan, May - July 2025
The Hillvale Photo Trophy, Hillvale Gallery, Victoria Australia, April - May 2024
Kumonodaira Mountain Hut Artist-in-Residence Program Exhibition "Diffusion of Nature 2023 Soil and Dream", WATOWA GALLERY, Tokyo Japan, April - May 2023
Kumonodaira Mountain Hut Artist-in-Residence Program Exhibition "Diffusion of Nature 2023 Soil and Dream", GASBON METABOLISM, Yamanashi Japan, May - July 2023
Artist Residency
Nakanojo Biennale International Contemporary Art Festival, 2025
Kumonodaira Mountain Hut Artist-in-Residence Program, 2022
Education
Degree in Department of Civil Engineering, Chuo University, 2008
Biography
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.
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。