Thirty-Six Views Toward Mount Fuji

36 Framed Gelatin Silver Prints
11 inches X 14 inches each
edition 1/2, 2016

In 2009 I was taken to a spot in the Yanaka neighborhood where you could glimpse a view of Mount Fuji from the ground on a clear day. The day was not clear, so I never saw Fuji, but vowed to go back, as this was the last remaining spot in Tokyo where a ground level view was possible. I returned on a clear morning in 2015 only to find that an apartment building has since been erected, and the view is now blocked. That morning, the project 36 Views Toward Mount Fuji, was born. Following in the conceptual footsteps of both Hokusai (36 Views of Mount Fuji) and Hiroshige (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo), I set out pointing my camera in the direction of Mount Fuji (as verified by my iPhone) and captured monotonous views of the city that now obscures the most famous feature of the regional landscape. The project started on a hillside in Yanaka, and ended with the fading light falling on the Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world and the 21st century’s landmark of the regional landscape.