Born 1949 in Tokyo. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a BA and MFA, and received a fellowship from the Belgian Ministry of Education to study photography at the Royal Academy in Gent, Belgium, in 1975. Commenced his activities as a photographer around 1980. His photographs shot with a large-format camera are precisely composed and charged with a sense of tension, whereas the formative beauty built from artificial and organic elements is illustrated in picturesque ways. Dynamically capturing mysterious sceneries of artificial objects in natural environments, Shibata employs his uniquely formative sense to depict landscapes that keep changing with the development of civilization, and thereby reflect social and political aspects. His works have been shown at numerous solo exhibitions in Japan and abroad, including ”Toshio Shibata” at The Art Institute of Chicago, “Landscape” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and “Given Forms – Tatsuno Toeko / Shibata Toshio” at The National Art Center, Tokyo. He received the 17th Kimura Ihei Award in ’92, and in 2009, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Photographic Society of Japan, and the 25th Higashikawa Award. Photo books include Landscape (1996), Dam (2004), A View and For Grey (both 2009).