Shu Watanabe photo exhibition “THE LAST SUMMIT” 7/10 – 7/25

05/22/2021

Reminders Photography Stronghold is pleased to announce Shu Watanabe photo exhibition “THE LAST SUMMIT” from the 10th of July to the 25th.
This project is a story of his loving father’s last attempt to climb a mountain and visualize his emotions leading up to that moment. At the same time, after losing his father in an unexpected accident, this project is part of his recovery and an effort to overcome his grief and bereavement by reliving his father’s footsteps.

The project has developed in the experimental workshop Atlas Lab “AKINA BOOKS Workshop: Stillness and Movement – Cinematic Editing and Dummy Books” in March 2018, and the project was also developed with the RPS mentorship program.
We will update posts for further information on SNSs. Please stay tuned.

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

My father died in a slip-and-fall accident on July 15, 2017, at Mt. Ryokami in Chichibu County, Saitama Prefecture. At the beginning of that year, he was in the hospital to receive treatment and surgery for liver cancer, which was discovered in September of the previous year. After leaving the hospital in March, my father was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, but he had gradually resumed working and continued his hobby of mountain climbing.

“Dad went out to the mountains yesterday morning and never came back. ……”

It was a sunny morning when I received a phone call from my mother, and then it felt as if the ground was crumbling beneath my feet. After filing a missing person’s report at the police station near my parents’ house, my father-in-law gave me a ride to Mt. Ryokami.

As much as I wanted my father to be safe, I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if I couldn’t find him. I was feeling hopeless. As if to reflect my feelings, it began to rain heavily as we approached the site. Before arriving at Mt. Ryokami, I received a call from the Ogano Police Station in Saitama Prefecture. They informed me that the body of someone matching my father’s description had been discovered at the bottom of the trail. When I checked the body that had been brought to the police station, it was unmistakably my father’s face. It was a hot summer day, so his body was cremated as it was. My family didn’t get to see his face on his last day.

When the nightmarish day for our family was over, what came to my mind as I was driving back to Tokyo from Chichibu, was not so much sadness over his death but rather anger over why he had gone climbing despite his health condition so soon after the surgery.

About a week after my father’s funeral, I remembered that I had family photos in a drawer of a cupboard in my parents’ house. I searched through the images, trying to find a glimpse of my father, and came across a large number of photos of him climbing mountains, which had never caught my attention before. The image of him in his mountaineering clothes and backpack, looking contented in nature as far as the eye could see, was different from the gentle father I knew at home.

I wondered why mountain climbing fascinated my father so much. To ease the resentment caused by accident, I began to look for what he saw in it. Relying on his notes, I started to purchase climbing gear, including clothing and food. I decided to climb the mountains he climbed.

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Shu Watanabe photo exhibition “THE LAST SUMMIT”
Date: July 10th – 25th, 2021.
Opening hours: 1pm – 7pm
Artist talk event: July 10th 7pm ~
Venue: Reminders Photography Stronghold

Support: The Grant for Arts and Cultural activities in Sumida

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

©︎Shu Watanabe / THE LAST SUMMIT

Profile | Shu Watanabe
I was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1982.
Graphic designer.While working on graphic design for corporations, educational institutions, and exhibitions, he also teaches visual communication at an art school.

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