20th Anniversary Special Exhibition: "The Faces of Japan" Project HIROSHIMA by Nobuyoshi Araki
This exhibition contains portraits of 461 groups and 1,035 individuals. Among them are young people staring at us forcefully, elderly people laughing warmly, middle-aged couples holding hands happily, and elementary school students smiling bashfully. Captured by the photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, the faces of these people, all of whom are currently living in Hiroshima, gaze out at us, only just beginning to tell us the story of their lives.
Using the term "'I'-photograph" in place of "I"-novel and reducing all photography to a relationship with the "self," Araki has said that the medium is an act of "replicating the relationship between one's self and subject, and one's own reality"; and began confronting "faces" at a very early stage in his career as a photographer. Despite turning 60 several years ago, Araki has continued to actively pursue innovative approaches in photography, and believing that portraits of people living in Japan in the early 21st century should be handed down to future generations as a resource to convey the "present," has now come to see the faces of Hiroshima.
A huge number of models, their families, and other visitors gathered for The Faces of Hiroshima photo sessions, conducted on two occasions at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and Mazda Stadium in June and July of this year. In front of the camera, everyone became one of the famous photographer's subjects, experiencing a feeling of both exaltation and tension. Swiftly perceiving the special characteristics of each person as they stood on a stage in front of a white background, Araki broached a variety of subjects, including clothing and the models' relationship with each other, in rapid succession. Their stiff expressions gradually softened in the midst of this chitchat. Never missing a photo op, on the other side of the lens Araki's keen eye captured each momentary change in his subject.
As Hiroshima was subjected to the horrors of the atomic bomb, for this project in the city Araki photographed some flowers in addition to the faces. In a wide variety of colors, some just budding, some in full bloom, the flowers act as offerings to assuage the souls of the sadly departed and a cry of encouragement for the as yet unseen future.
Araki Nobuyoshi's photographs remind us that there is more to documenting "Hiroshima" than merely photographing the city and landscape of Hiroshima. His photographs, which while capturing an instant in the present actually transcend it, suggest both the past and the future; and offer us an opportunity to consider the "Hiroshima" of the past as a mission for those living in the present and to reflect on the future.
* The text provided by Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.
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