Sumida River, Tokyo 

Using a small portable camera, Kimura Ihee adopted the snapshot technique to capture the reality of everyday life in his photographs. The subject here is the thermal power station in Minami-Senju beside the Sumida River. The four chimneys are over 80 meters in height and depending on the angle it can look like there are just two or three—a fact that earned the local area the nickname "haunted chimneys." The chimneys, which billow thick smoke, are clearly reflected upside down on the water surface, which occupies more than half of the image. The ripples on the river are gentle and calm. The sky dotted with clouds is blue and distant. Did Kimura click the shutter as he was being blown across the surface of the river? Having himself grown up in this working-class area, he was perhaps deeply familiar with this scenery.
(YATSUYANAGI Sae)