News Releases

01/25/2001

Hitachi America, Ltd. Launches STATEART.NET

Jan 25, 2001 08:48 AM

--New Art Site Features Unique Photography of The United States--

BRISBANE, California, January 25, 2001 -- Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) today announced the launch of www.stateart.net, a new website associated with its award-winning Hitachi Viewseum (tm) (www.viewseum.com) fine art Web portal and eShop. Stateart.net will feature unique characterizations of state names as viewed through the lenses of a network of photographers from around the 50 United States.

“The unique concept for Stateart.net originated in the mind of Rick Vanderpool, a photographer and author living in Commerce, Texas”, said Eugene Murphy Viewseum project manager and curator. “Rick approached us in the summer of 2000, after he had logged more than 20,000 miles driving through every county in Texas, photographing the interesting visual characterizations of the word ‘Texas”, from the eclectic, such as grain silos and barns, to the conventional, such as hotels, restaurants and billboards. To date, Rick has published a ‘Looking For Texas’ poster and a photography book, both of which are available on the site. The end goal is to complete the full suite of all 50 states by the end of the year 2002.“

Among the other content included at the Stateart.net site will be limited edition photographic images and original hand-colored black and white photography. As participating photographers complete their tour of their chosen state(s), their work and resulting content will be added to Stateart.net.

“The scope and attraction of this project is truly exciting”, said Mr. Murphy. “Visitors to Stateart.net will take part in a nationwide artistic adventure that will involve every county in America. As we add new states at the rate of one every 4-5 weeks, participating photographers will be able to share their experiences on the site, with each other as well as visitors. We anticipate having each state represented on the site by the end of 2002 with a beautiful fine art national poster and coffee table photographic journal of ‘Looking For America’.”

For further information or inquiry, please email Eugene Murphy at viewseum@hal.hitachi.com, or call 650.244.7006 or toll-free at 877.724.7974.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information on Hitachi America, visit http://www.hitachi.us/.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of 8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi’s Web site at http://hitachi.com.

*At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.