In awe of Japanese tiles

Type: Conceptual Photography Series
Project Status: In post-production

“In awe of Japanese tiles” is a conceptual photography project that I began working on during my three month stay in Japan from March until May in 2023. The project has gone through two rounds of shooting and is now in post-production.

The project bases off of the observation that in Japan the building’s facades are commonly covered in ceramic tiles. This struck my interest during my time in the country and so I began collecting photographs of tiles in all sorts of situations I could find them in. After a couple months this ended up becoming a visual study of this observation and so I decided to finally do some research and find out why Japanese architecture so often features tiles.

Japan is well known as a country suffering from many earthquakes and therefore their architecture needs to be build with the potential of a shaking ground in mind. One of the measures in the material selection is to avoid bricks and instead use concrete. The issue however with concrete is, aside from it’s (subjectively) ugly appearance, that it is more prone to damage by various environmental influences. Because Japan is a high-humidity country, bare concrete deteriorates quickly due to erosion caused by the humidity. And therefore cladding tiles are used as a protective (and decorative) measure to sustain the walls of the buildings.