About Shadai Gallery

Tokyo Polytechnic University is the most traditional and longest-established photographic institution in our country since 1923. Among other university establishments, Shadai Gallery was opened in 1975 as Japan’s pioneer facility and existence that exhibits, collects and researches both domestic and international photographs.

The gallery’s collection includes works from worldly known photographers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Nadar, and Edward Weston as well as Ihei Kimura, Shomei Tomatsu and Ikko Narahara. Also among them, over twelve hundred important works of Ken Domon and a nine hundred early works of Daido Moriyama should be noted as an important part of the collection.
These collections are put to practical use for education and research daily, and are exhibited to the public for photography fans inside and outside of campus throughout the year.

Current exhibition

The Art of Light: Observation and Witness

Exhibition Outline 

With the spread of smartphones and social media, the number of people taking photographs has increased remarkably. As a consequence, it seems that many believe that anyone can take a photograph simply by snapping the shutter, and that the photograph is the same, whoever takes it. Of course, if one snaps the shutter, a photograph can be taken. But it is also undeniable that there are photographs that only a certain person can take.

Christopher Burkett (born 1950 in Canada) uses an 8x10 inch large format camera to make photographs of archetypal American scenes. In Cottonwood and Light, a single tree is photographed, standing quietly. The rock face in the background is completely in shadow, so we can tell the tree is backlit. When photographing something that is backlit, the front of the object is often in shadow, but light comes around to fall on the tree and the ground, displaying beautiful color. I am only surmising, but it is likely that a rock face like the one in the background stands before the tree. I think light reflected off the rock and the ground to illuminate the tree.

Michael Kenna (born 1953 in England) is known as photographer who creates magical landscapes in black and white. Sakura and Full Moon, Urakawa, Hokkaido was photographed on the night of a full moon, as the title suggests. The moon appears as a streak of light, so we can tell that the shutter was kept open for a number of hours. Despite the fact that the shutter was open for a long time, the cherry tree in the foreground is largely free of blur. We can see that he chose a night when, in addition to there being a full moon, the moon rose behind the tree and there was no wind.

As seen in these two photographs, it is rare for the day, the hour, and the timing to line up in this way. Photographers continue to gaze at the scenes before them, while grappling with nature and weather that are beyond human control. And then, when they encounter a miraculous moment that will never be repeated, they capture the scene in a photograph, using skills they have honed. Photographs created in such a way clearly stand apart from those that are taken by simply snapping the shutter. As well, when we stand as viewers before works like these, they make us feel as if we had been present at that very scene ourselves.

This exhibition offers the opportunity to view masterpieces of landscape photography from the Shadai Gallery collection, created by leading photographers from Japan and abroad, through their unique perspectives and skills.

Planned and organized by Katsukura Ryota

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The Art of Light: Observation and witness

Dates: Monday, June 10, 2024 - Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Hours of operation: 10:00 - 19:00
Closed: Thursday, Sunday, National Holidays
 Admission free

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Gallery Information

Tokyo Polytechnic University, Shadai Gallery