shashasha

Life in perpetual emergency

After the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, photographer Yuki Iwanami began visiting Fukushima, despite having no knowledge of the area. Three years later, he moved there permanently. Since the accident, Iwanami has photographed in Fukushima with an awareness of the invisible, imperceptible new reality that has gripped the region. “It is only the high numbers shown on a dosimeter that prove the factual existence of radioactive material,” he writes in his afterword. His series "Blue Persimmons" depicts the myriad ways in which life goes on despite everything. The seasons still change, trees grow, flowers bloom, vegetables are harvested, children grow up and graduate from school, festivals are held. In the background of Iwanami's otherwise unremarkable, ordinary shots, there remains a palpable sense of anxiety and loss.

“Perhaps the difficulty in perceiving what is true is not unique to Fukushima but is shared worldwide. In spite of being able to access an overflow of information, we still don’t understad everytign about the world or even the actions and activities of human beings themselves. What is true? How should we move forward into the future?”
― from Yuki Iwanami’s afterword