Mt Fuji on film

Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai's 19thcentury prints, 36 Views Of Mount Fuji, Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins turned his lens on Japan's most famous natural icon and more than 50 of the images are displayed here.

It may have been conceived with half an eye on the past but there's nothing retro about this project: Steele-Perkins beautifully captures images of today's Japanese society, all played out with Mt Fuji in the background.

The contrasts are striking. In Carp Banners, a string of fish-shaped kites are reflected at the water's edge, framing Fuji in a romantic Cinemascope view; in Fuji City Refinery, the snow-capped peak is so at odds with the shiny industrial foreground it might be painted in.

The population features prominently - through a hotel window, with Fuji reflected in the glass; at baseball practice in the foothills. Steele-Perkins has a vibrant, witty eye: at a festival to celebrate the end of winter, the milling crowd are sidelined by a 10ft red devil, its white horns echoing the tip of the barely-there mountain.

There is serious comment here, too: the view of Fuji from Tokyo shows it to have disappeared completely into the fug of pollution. A long-exposed shot with roadworks in the foreground has a funereal quality to it, the startling falseness of a fluorescent green mountain with a throbbing red bank of light at its base surely a warning against taking the natural world for granted.

Until Sept 13, National Theatre Foyer, South Bank SE1, Mon to Sat 10am to 11pm, free. Tel: 020 7452 3000. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk Tube: Waterloo/Embankment

Fiona Morrow