Taiji Matsue

Anyone who has clicked through from Google Maps to a satellite image of his or her destination will grasp immediately the appeal of Tokyo-born Taiji Matsue's photographs, which look down from high points in natural and manmade landscapes. The artist is a geologist by training, and his work examines the skin of the earth, with no horizon and no form other than the undulating shapes beneath it and the tracery of roads, buildings, plants and people on it. Matsue observes houses, farms, construction sites, wetlands and cities from perches tens to hundreds of feet above street level. His low-contrast, black-and-white prints are neither spectacular nor picturesque; he refuses to dramatize the moment or the view. That unpretentious perception of the landscape enjoys special status among his circle, a group of young Japanese photographers making a name for themselves around the world, as it will among readers and collectors.