Writing about Japan as a freelancer, both 'informal' and in a more academic setting.
Find some of my work at KaternJapan here.
Writing about Japan as a freelancer, both 'informal' and in a more academic setting.
Find some of my work at KaternJapan here.
Academic publication
Ouweleen, Philo, 'Through the photographic lens: Japanese photographers visualising the triple disaster' in Andon, no. 106 (2018), pp.41-56.
ABSTRACT:
The Tōhoku disaster of 2011 evoked a wide array of artistic response. Focusing on photography, two main bodies of work can be distinguished. One has the apocalyptic ruins of Tōhoku as its focus, creating powerful and horrific images of destruction. The other visualises the invisible; depicting the horrors of radiation caused by the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.
This article reflects upon the power of photography to record and interpret historic events. It also discusses ethical and aesthetic issues that arise when artists represent trauma and disaster. The work of three Japanese photographers and their visualisation of the triple disaster of 2011 - earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown - is taken as a case study: Handa Yasushi, Hatakeyama Naoya and Takeda Shimpei.
ABSTRACT:
The Tōhoku disaster of 2011 evoked a wide array of artistic response. Focusing on photography, two main bodies of work can be distinguished. One has the apocalyptic ruins of Tōhoku as its focus, creating powerful and horrific images of destruction. The other visualises the invisible; depicting the horrors of radiation caused by the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.
This article reflects upon the power of photography to record and interpret historic events. It also discusses ethical and aesthetic issues that arise when artists represent trauma and disaster. The work of three Japanese photographers and their visualisation of the triple disaster of 2011 - earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown - is taken as a case study: Handa Yasushi, Hatakeyama Naoya and Takeda Shimpei.