On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of unprecedented magnitude devastated the northeastern coast of Japan. This catastrophe devastated and questioned a new generation of photographers: how could images reflect a nightmarish reality? What role should the photographer play? How to evoke the trauma but also the rehabilitation and reconstruction? These works addresse these questions through the contribution of twelve photographers, whose practice was completely reconsidered after the tragedy. The results are images showing the desolation of places, the displacement of populations and the 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 starting in 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
– 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
Exhibition
Repliques – 03/11/11.
Japanese photographers facing the cataclysm
Les Rencontres d’Arles 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
