Photographer Mikio Hasui’s solo exhibition, “Seventeen Portraits of the Sea,” will be held at YUGEN Gallery in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, from Saturday, June 7 to Monday, June 23.
Hasui, who works across a wide range of photographic genres, has received numerous awards including the Grand Prize at the 67th Nikkei Advertising Awards and the Beautiful Japan Award at the APA Awards 2019. Meanwhile, he has been engaged for over 30 years in artwork themed around “the laws of nature,” including his panoramic camera series “PEACE LAND,” which captures landscapes around the world with the horizon as a key motif.
This exhibition will feature, for the first time, 17 seascape works shot over about a year and a half from late 2023 through 2025, documenting all nuclear power plants in Japan except the under-construction Oma Nuclear Power Plant in Aomori Prefecture. The nuclear plants themselves are deliberately placed outside the frame, so without explanation, viewers cannot identify the seas. Human presence such as ships, tetrapods, or surfers has been digitally erased from the images.
As an advocate of “straight photography,” Hasui struggled with the question of whether such manipulation still qualifies as photography. However, he expressed his thoughts behind the works: “No matter how much time passes, the sea is always beautiful. While the horizon represents the earth’s true form, I feel the sea now carries invisible risks and has crossed a boundary. These risks are created by humans and humans suffer from them. So even if it means breaking what photography ‘should’ be, I wanted to express an imaginary sea that doesn’t actually exist there.”
Gallery talks are scheduled during the exhibition on Sunday, June 8; Saturday, June 14; Sunday, June 15; Saturday, June 21; and Sunday, June 22, with reservations currently being accepted. Visitors can tour the gallery with Hasui himself, enjoying a discussion that includes the background of the works, stories from the shooting process, and the artist’s own perspectives while viewing the exhibited pieces. Admission is free.
Seventeen Portraits of the Sea
■ Exhibition Period: June 7 (Sat) – June 23 (Mon), 2025
■ Opening Hours: Weekdays 13:00–19:00, Opening day, weekends and holidays 13:00–20:00
*Closing at 17:00 on the final day
*Last admission 30 minutes before closing
*Open every day during the exhibition period
■ Venue: YUGEN Gallery
■ Address: 4F KD Minami-Aoyama Building, 3-1-31 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo (with Gene Co., Ltd. office)
■ Admission: Free
■ Gallery Talks:
June 22 (Sun) 14:00–15:00
June 8 (Sun) 14:00–15:00
June 14 (Sat) 17:00–18:00
June 15 (Sun) 14:00–15:00
June 21 (Sat) 17:00–18:00
