On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of unprecedented magnitude devastated the northeastern coast of Japan. This catastrophe will upset and question a new generation of photographers: how can images reflect a nightmarish reality? What role should the photographer play? How to evoke the trauma but also the rehabilitation and reconstruction? This work addresses these questions through the work of twelve photographers, whose practice was completely reconsidered after the tragedy. The result is images showing the desolation of places, the displacement of populations and social discrimination due to the nuclear accident, the problem of making radioactivity visible, but also artistic gestures which reveal signs of resistance and resilience. This publication, under the direction of Philippe Séclier and Amada Marina, accompanies the first exhibition of this project at the Rencontres d’Arles from July.
The works of the twelve photographers – introduced for each corpus by a note of intent – speak of reconstruction and re-examine the status of the medium: from daguerreotype to photomontage through serial presentations, in the form of contact sheets or composite panoramic images.
– Disappearance and the role of images in confronting loss:
Mayumi Suzuki, Naoya Hatakema and Lieko Shiga
– The problems linked to the nuclear disaster including the invisible effects of radioactivity:
Kazuma Obara, Takashi Arai, Jun Kanno and Hikaru Fujii
– The question of resilience through intimate and personal testimonies:
Ai Iwane and Miho Kajioka
– Reconstruction and the commemoration process:
Tadashi Ono, Daisuke Saito and Keiko Sasaoka
Exposition
Aftershocks – 03/11/11.
Japanese photographers facing the cataclysm
The Arles Meetings 2024
Espace Van Gogh
From July 1 to September 29, 2024
Book
Atelier EXB
Texts: Philippe Séclier, Marina Amada, Seo Natsumi, Philippe Mesmer, Sébastien Penmellen Boret
With a presentation of each artist and their biography
Paperback with dust jacket, 19 × 27 cm
264 pages
Around 160 B&W and color photographs
ISBN : 978-2-36511-403-5
Price: €55 including tax
www.exb.fr
