Store Gallery for July 2024: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji vs Mount Hood by Albrecht Tiefenbacher

About the Show

Hokusai’s Great Wave, arguably one of the world’s most iconic works of art, is towering so high, you can easily overlook the fact that at the time of publication in 1830 this striking woodblock print was only the first of a greater series, titled Thirty-six Views Of Mount Fuji. This is more than just a collection of landscape art. Hokusai chronicled many aspects of life in Japan’s Edo Period: Farming, fishing, building, crafts, travel, labour and leisure are shown in rich detail and in the light of ever changing weather and seasons. With all this human activity set against the distant backdrop of the sacred mountain the series evokes a sense of impermanence, which is typical for the art of Ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”). I have never seen Mount Fuji myself, but I am lucky enough to live in Portland, where the vistas of Mount Hood from the greater city area inevitably made me want to capture my own Thirty-six Views. In over two years – my camera and a postcard edition of the original always at hand – I have made it pretty far. But much like Hokusai
himself, who kept amending his work for the rest of his life, I don’t think I will ever be done.
A.T., July 2024

Bio

Albrecht Tiefenbacher has been taking pictures all of his life. However, the need to make a career out of his colorful academic background (IT, literature, sociology and art history) first led him into tech writing and then on to advertising. One decade and some award-winning work later he had made it to Senior Copywriter at one of Gemany’s top agencies. When their in-house photographer left, Albrecht leapt at the chance to fill in. After years of juggling both jobs he finally went all-in with photography, mostly working for architects, interior designers and related magazines. Due to his wife’s transfer to the US he moved to Portland in 2022. He is busy as dachshund handler and free range photographer – always in dogged pursuit of an ever evolving array of off-and-on-kilter projects, such as Cars Undercover, Pandemic Postcards, Runaway Chairs and Squirrels on Headstones. Some of the results feature on 36views.cam alongside his commercial work.