Fission and Fusion in Post-Photography
text Shigeo Goto
In 2021, a decade passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, which was an unprecedented catastrophe that combined earthquake, tsunami, and radiation damage caused by the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, and it still casts a shadow on the Japanese society. This photo book is an archive of the exhibition "FISSION and FUSION POST/PHOTOGRAPHY 2011-21: 10 years after 3.11, the present and future of photography" held from March 10 to 15 at Okuno Building Room 306 in Ginza, Tokyo, which documents how this catastrophe continues to metamorphose photography. The twelve participants consisted of three types of artists; Taisuke Koyama, Norihito Ogata, and Takashi Kawashima, who visited and photographed the catastrophe as members of G/P gallery at the time, and Takaaki Akaishi, who was greatly influenced by the event; Younger artists such as Yutarou Haneji, Hayate Ito, and Yuu Matsui, who experienced the incident as "someone else's story" at the time, but were forced to create photographs in the midst of "everyday catastrophes" such as radiation; Then, there are the members of the Ginza Okuno Building, which is located in a prime location in Ginza, Tokyo, and is engaged in preservation activities against the wave of abandoned buildings and the bubble economy, as well as those who have a deep personal connection to the Great East Japan Earthquake, such as Toshiko Nomura, Sumino Onodera, Hiroshi Kato, Hideki Nomura, and Takami Sugawara. These three types of members mixed and mingled in the exhibition of their works. The exhibition may have given visitors a chaotic impression like "debris". This photo book is also an archive of the exhibition, but as you can see, it is not a normal photo book. The photos of the venue, which serve as the basic images for each spread, were taken and processed by Keita Kojima, one of the participating artists, using the internal scanning function of the iPhone 12.
POST/PHOTOGRAPHY refers to the "present" and "future" of contemporary photographic art, which is undergoing a major metamorphosis due to digital disruption. In the background of this transformation, there is the transformation of visual information through SNS and GAFA. Then there are the accidental catastrophes, such as Covid-19 following the Great East Japan Earthquake, that have shaken modern civilization to its very foundations. These catastrophes have a speed that human literacy in critical cognition cannot keep up with. Will we ever attain the "freedom" that Vilém Flusser predicted? This photo collection is an important work report in the midst of this process.
発行元：アートビートパブリッシャーズ supported by FUJIXEROX
発行日：2021年５月発売
サイズ：318×236mm
ページ：40ページ
価 格：3,000円＋税
