MAKI HAYASHIDA’S “Beyond the Mountains” NOW AVAILABLE FOR ORDER!

03/19/2025

©︎Maki Hayashida / Beyond the Mountains

Beyond the Mountains is an exploration of Japan’s history of illegal dumping, tracing its lingering shadows to question what society chooses to remember and what it allows to be forgotten.

By interweaving publicly archived images documented by government bodies, municipalities, and residents with her own photographs of present-day landscapes, Hayashida constructs a visual archive where past and present intersect. The environmental and social impacts of illegal dumping extend far beyond Japan. The way waste is managed varies significantly depending on a country’s political, economic, and cultural context, often reflecting societal structures in ways that go unnoticed.

This book positions Japan’s experience as a case study, encouraging readers to reconsider this issue within their own societal frameworks.

The project was awarded the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) Photobook Dummy Award in 2020, receiving publishing support to bring it to fruition. Furthermore, it marks the inaugural release of ONE AND ONLY EDITIONS, an imprint founded by Reminders Photography Stronghold with the vision of making independent photobook publishing a reality. Bringing together Hayashida’s perspective with the expertise of an editor, a designer, and skilled artisans in print production, this book has taken shape as a carefully crafted object.

To commemorate the release of this book, the KG+ PICK UP exhibition After All will be held at RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES from April 12 to May 11, 2025 (closed from April 21 to 25).

By bridging past and present, and making the unseen visible, this archive seeks to offer a new perspective on what has long been overlooked.

Beyond the Mountains is a visual archive of illegal dumping in Japan. Focusing on large-scale cases that are subject to specific hindrance removal projects under the Industrial Waste Special Measures Law, which expired on March 31, 2023, this body of work revisits illegal dumping across the nation, mainly in mountainous areas during the 1990s and 2000s, along with related important matters.

Initially intended to be a straightforward documentary project, my artistic practice ends up referencing and reproducing archival images from the national government, local authorities and residents, and combines them in fragments with my own photographs of present scarred landscape into a book format. In doing so, I seek to depict the discrepancy between the impression given nowadays and the unexposed past of my country, rather than narrating the specific story of each incident.

The project aims to reconsider the impact of waste management on nature in all parts of the world, using Japan as a case study. Waste is relevant to all human beings, but in terms of its management, it varies widely from place to place and cannot be entirely generalised. There are also ideological, cultural and political factors involved. As such, this publication is intended to invite the reader on a journey of wondering in their own context, rather than trying to make them understand what is happening in Japan.

Maki Hayashida

ABOUT “Beyond the Mountains” by Maki Hayashida

Edition of 100 (signed)
Size : 190mm × 280mm × 35mm
Pages : 522 pages
Weight : Approx. 2kg
Price: 9,900 JPY (Tax included, shipping extra)
Publisher: ONE AND ONLY EDITIONS
Concept, storyline, and art direction: Yumi Goto
Graphic Design Coordination: Chiho Bangert
Printing Coordination and Binding: Shinohara Shiko Ltd.
ISBN: 978-4-600-01550-3
Printed in Japan

“ Beyond the Mountains” by Maki Hayashida is the winning publication of the 8th SIPF2020 Best Dummy Book. The prize money goes toward supporting production to help bring the project to life, ensuring that the work can be professionally published and shared with a wider audience.
Singapore International Photography Festival is organised by DECK Photography Art Centre in Singapore.

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Alternatively, you can place your order via email at photobook@reminders-project.org.