Mikio UMINO

"Marginal Land"

Pages: 88 / photos: 40
Size: 217x262x13mm / hardcover
Price: 2,415JPY
Release Date: April 2007

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The photographs in this book were taken in Mongolia, in a desolate landscape: we see open expanses of plain, always put in immense perspective by the horizon. Mikio took these photos in the short "early summer" of Mongolia, when grass can sometimes be visible on the otherwise empty plain. But despite the fact that the scenery is largely barren, Mikio finds things to fill the frame: power lines cut through clouds, a clump of rocks looks like a crowd of people, a house stands by itself in the middle of an open field. The composition of the work is certainly formal, but never cold--it's as though Mikio is making an honest effort to bring out the character of the land.

In the postscript to "Marginal Land," Mikio describes the cultural importance of the road in Mongolia, and one can feel the sensation of his journey through the landscape. There are great variations in the type of land that we see: plains, deserts, rocky terrain, grassy fields, snowy mountains, and so on. and indeed the scenery might be the only personality in this work.