In the twelfth issue of TOO MUCH: Magazine of Romantic Geography, we present a sweeping retrospective of photographer and traveler Naoki Ishikawa's work, tracing his journeys through the Himalayas since he first set foot in Tibet in 2001.
The Himalayas have remained central to the exploration and work of Ishikawa — by 2024, he had worked through the tremendous mountain range, summiting all 14 of the world's eight-thousand-metre peaks. Throughout this journey, he carried his notebook and medium-format cameras in his pack, determined to document all that he experienced. In the pages of this issue, his writings and photographs provide us with an insight into the shifting mountain landscapes and social changes that have unfolded before him over the course of 24 years.
As always, we at TOO MUCH are concerned with what we call "romantic geography" — the ways people and landscapes continually make and remake one another. The compiled collection of more than two decades of photographs and journal entries by Naoki Ishikawa not only stands as a testament to the extraordinary physical feats required to scale the world's highest mountains but also reveals the political and cultural structures that shape these climbs, pointing to the ever-shifting balance of power in an increasingly commercialized Himalaya. Ishikawa noted that we might think of this work as a kind of topographical survey – one that shows where humans currently stand in relation to the most extreme places on the planet. Even here, humans and landscapes make and remake one another.
It is our great honor and joy to share with our readers Ishikawa's story and his work from his time in the Himalayas — thrilling endeavors that command deep respect.
*本号には日本語冊子は付属しません。
