To illustrate his concept Shibata refers to a series of images he made in Nakanojo Town, Gunma Prefecture. His preference for strong architectural contrasts is clearly manifest in images such as Untitled Polaroid #110, which is dominated by a massive, dark, ridged cement wall, a feat of engineering that shores up the surrounding earth, rocks and trees.

Shibata, who holds a BFA and an MFA in painting from Tokyo University of Fine Arts, became a photographer when he was in his early 30s. He entered university having been enormously influenced by Paul Cezanne and other European painters. Later he discovered the work of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and other Pop artists who were using photography as a tool. He was intrigued by the Pop Art technique of using the camera to create an image instantly, rather than laboriously making a preparatory drawing. This instant image could then be projected

onto silk screen, paper or canvas, forming the basis of a print or an oil painting. Shibata was enthralled with this aesthetic rather than the social and political realism and rough, grainy prints characteristic of Japan's post-war photography of the 1970s.

Multiple influences led Shibata to abandon painting and printmaking for photography. He was very impressed by the contemporary American art work he saw on a trip through the United States in the early 1970s. In Belgium, he immersed himself in the films of Akira Kurosawa, and had a stint working in the movie industry as an assistant film director. He came of age in the era of black-and-white photography and retains a fondness for black-and-white imagery. However, the deciding factor in his career change was, unquestionably, his first encounter with photographs presented as "fine art." He saw "American West," an exhibition of the work of Ansel Adams, complemented by works of Edward Weston and Joel Meyerowitz in a Paris art gallery in 1980. This signified for him that photography was truly an artistic medium, and at that point he determined to pursue it as his medium of choice. Further, the influence of Ansel Adam's zone system and Shibata's sensitivity to detail and light would soon result in a body of luminescent images that demonstrate an extensive range of shades from black to white.