Under Construction

18. Under Construction by Hatakeyama Naoya

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I absolutely LOVE this collection of photographs. They combine some of my favorite things: construction in progress, exceptionally cool architecture, and a library. Hatakeyama's images are very much my aesthetic.

Toyo Ito is the architect and his design is striking.

The construction site pictured is of the Sendai Mediatheque and its progress over the course of about two and a half years.

There are introductions by the photographer and architect both in Japanese and English. At the back of the book there are thumbnails of all the images with descriptions of what they are of also in English and Japanese.

The only thing odd about the book is its binding. It's sort of half hardbound, which is to say it's like a trade paperback but there's a dense embossed piece of cardboard glued to the front and it has a pretty dust cover.

Aside from that, I loved it. I usually go through photography books pretty quickly but this one I went through just a few pages at a time to savor the imagery.


10 years ago on TTaT: Purple