Fukuyama
Andreas Gursky, 2004
Chromogenic color print (C‑print), mounted on Plexiglas
Dimensions: approx. 207 × 305 cm
The Met Hotel Art Collection, Thessaloniki
Description:
In Fukuyama, Andreas Gursky presents a monumental, almost dizzying photograph of a multi-level livestock facility—each tier filled with confined cattle, arranged in strict rows. The image is vertically stacked with repetitive lines of metal railings and shadowy enclosures, forming an intense visual grid that verges on abstraction.
Shot in Japan near the city of Fukuyama, the work is often misread as digitally manipulated. But it’s not: the scene is real, and its power lies in its factual horror. By capturing it from a distance with exceptional clarity and symmetry, Gursky transforms a real industrial landscape into a philosophical meditation on scale, capitalism, and the mechanization of life.
The photograph evokes a visceral reaction—evoking both the beauty of order and the dehumanizing effect of mass systems, or in this case, the de-animalizing reality of meat production. The animals, barely distinguishable, appear like abstract data points within a colossal machine.
Interpretive Highlights
Human systems without humans: Gursky’s image shows no people, yet their systems dominate every inch—efficiency, repetition, and containment replace empathy.
Architecture of control: The facility mimics office towers or digital grids—farming as architecture, agriculture as system.
Title as commentary: Named Fukuyama, referencing political theorist Francis Fukuyama (The End of History), the title alludes to the paradox of progress—technological and economic “advancement” at the cost of ethical collapse.