NUCLEAR SHADOWS

Nuclear Shadows

We live beneath the shadow of the bomb. We sleep uneasily, breathing shallow breaths. Days pass, then years… the shadow grows, but we no longer see it.

Those who decide these things give voice to an imperfect truth, a mantra of nuclear deterrence. Thus, to ensure our safety, they endanger us.

I look back in time towards Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to the atomic bombs that fell there. It must have been as though a thousand suns fell to the earth. Within a few seconds a terrible suffering was unleashed. Many died, those who survived had unimaginable injuries. The land became sick, and so too the water.

Some of those who lived through that time still walk amongst us, they are called Hibakusha. Their tongues are tempered by the very nuclear flames they survived, the words that pour from their mouths form a river of the deepest compassion. This river of words is so strong and so true that it transcends national boundaries, transcends concepts of allies and enemies. They speak to all who will listen, they speak of peace.

In creating the photographic series ‘Nuclear Shadows’, I challenged myself to image the unimaginable - that is, to imagine landscapes local to me attacked by nuclear bombing. I started by taking representational black and white images of areas in my neighbourhood and overlaid these with abstract colour images of sunlight, allowing the photographs to burn [over-expose] and distort - these represent the destructive power of nuclear war. The figures, people who appear in this work, represent our vulnerability, our denial, our dreams for tomorrow - they represent each of us, especially, they represent our children.

The titles of and inspiration behind individual photographs from this series are quotes from ‘Hibakusha’, survivors of the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These testimonies, along with portraits and letters were compiled by photographer Haruka Sakaguchi in her project 1945.

Here they are in the order the photographs appear……….

"I saw something long and thin fall from the sky." [Kumiko Arakawa]

"A gust of hot wind hit my face." [Fujio Torikoshi]

"74,000 people were instantaneously turned into dust." [Inosuke Hayasaki]

"My older sister was killed by the initial blast." [Kumiko Arakawa]

"Thousands of bodies bopped up and down the river." [Matsumoto Shigeko]

"We cannot continue to sacrifice precious lives to warfare." [Fujio Torikoshi]

"Thousands of children were orphaned on August 6, 1945." [Emiko Okada]

"The radiation continues to affect survivors to this day." [Yoshiro Yamawaki]

"Children are our greatest blessing." [Emiko Okada]

"Weapons of this capacity must be abolished from the earth." [Yoshiro Yamawaki]

HIBAKUSHA - "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure to radioactivity" is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.