shashasha

Japanese photographer Koji Otsuka was living in New York when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11th, 2001. As the city changed in response to the event, so did Otsuka. In Snap out of it, he records his years in New York between 2001 and 2008.

"In ages past, people viewed the eruption of a volcano in the belief that the god of the mountain was angry. And perhaps at that moment, scores of people including myself, who lost the capacity for words and could only look on, were humbled by the sight of such a god, abruptly manifesting before us in such violent anger. Surely humanity’s unmitigated greed must have angered the god. The event was so overwhelming and sudden that this was the only way to process it.

I personally have not seen that god again. But whenever I hear news of some tragic accident by some artificial cause, I can’t help but think the god has emerged again to reprimand us humans for continuing to live with such arrogance upon this planet."

— Excerpt from the artist’s statement