Historical photographic methods in use today – the art, processes and techniques of alternative photography. Photography as it should be: hands on, fun and inspiring.
Nori Shibata was born in Nagasaki in 1966. He moved to Tokyo after graduating from high school, and has lived there ever since. He acquired a bachelors degree in aesthetics and art history at Keio University, and then accumulated four years of experience as a news photographer with Kyodo News.
He became a freelance photographer in 1995, and posted photos mainly of peoplefs life in Tibet, China, and India to numerous magazines. In particular, he has been visiting Tibet to take photos since late 1980s, and published a collection, Tibetans, in 2002.
So far, he has published works with a journalistic approach as mentioned above, however, in recent years, he has also undertaken creative activities with a classical technique called alternative process photography since he happened to see the works and was impressed by them.
In 2009, Shibata started a photo-taking project of his hometown Nagasakifs Hibakuchi, the ground that once suffered the atomic bombing. He talks about his future activities in this way:
"I have many photo taking experiences abroad, but I would also like to work on serious themes inside Japan from now on."
Nori says:
"Now that digital cameras are in common use, photo taking with a large-scale camera and sheet film is a very exciting and enjoyable experience"