Earlier this year, the CCA presented three series of photographs by Japanese photographer Naoya Hatakeyama in the exhibition Naoya Hatakeyama: Scales.

These views of Tokyo are part of a suite of five gelatine silver prints from 2003 entitled Tokyo/Mori Building. Yet they are not what they seem. The series depicts not the real city but a large and extremely complex scale model of Tokyo.

Hatakeyama’s panorama of simulated aerial views conveys the vastness of the city, its buildings, parks, highway systems, and infrastructure spreading beyond the edges of the each image. The photographs portray Tokyo as a totality, yet evoke the uncontained urban development common to megacities around the world.

Naoya Hatakeyama spoke about his work with curator Hubertus von Amelunxen in a public conversation on 27 September 2007, now available as a CCA Podcast on iTunes.

Photo: Tokyo/Mori Building, 2003. CCA Collection © Naoya Hatakeyama.