Yu Yamauchi

Born in 1977 in Hyogo Prefecture, Yu Yamauchi spends a great deal of time in natural surroundings exploring the fundamental state of our world through man’s relationship with nature. A self-taught photographer, Yamauchi launched his career after working as a studio assistant. For his photobook Dawn (Akaaka, 2010), he spent more than 600 days ina hut on Mt. Fuji photographing the sunrise above the clouds. In 2014, he published Kumo no ue ni sumu hito (‘The Man Who Lives Above The Clouds’) (Seizansha), which focuses on Tsuguhiro Seki, the man who owns the mountain hut where he stayed, and the inner and outer dialogues that people engage in during the days they spend up in the mountains. In 2020, after traveling through Mongolia for five years, Yamauchi released the photobook Planet (Seigensha), which explores time and space in Mongolia’s various regions, the relative nature of reality, and the pluralistic structure of our world. For his upcoming publication Jinen, scheduled for release in 2023, Yamauchi traveled to the island of Yakushima in the south of Japan many times over a nine-year period, once spending nearly a month in isolation in its forests in order to gauge the distance between humans and the rest of nature. Based in Nagano Prefecture, Yamauchi holds exhibitions all over the world and continues to elicit questions about the existence of an absolute universe and the reality of our world.