..September 2008 New York to Tokyo, Heading to Nagasaki..
From Above
Emotions, layered on top of emotion. That’s what I want in these portraits . Not just photos of 70-80 year old men and women.
I hope they let me in. Give me an emotion to photograph. I have to make them trust me. I want to concentrate on the eyes. The emotions are in the eyes. This could be a very mediciore. If the emotion is there. It will be a successful experience.
..September 2008 Epicenter, Nagasaki..
..The park is dark except for the illuminated gas lanterns circling the edge of the paths. I only hear chirping birds and grasshoppers whisper.
A short walk to the monument. Put the palm of my hands on the marble box shaped monument in memory of victims, many who were vaporized. Look up. It’s as if there is always a light shining From Above on the very spot. A straight beam like the vacuum a mushroom cloud. But it’s not there in reality.
..September 2008 On the train Tokyo to Nagasaki..
A sunny Sunday afternoon.
Watch a lush green landscape pass by outside a moving train. The rich valleys nestled between small mountains and stoic hills. Imaging not so long ago, bombers and attack planes terrorizing the people living in their wooden houses. A red fire here and there among the green fields.
In Keishu the train hugs along the coast after Fukowaka. Small fishing boats wading back and forth. The train slowly snakes along the coast line. It looks like the South of France. A mirror of the Mediterranean Sea between Marseille and Nice.
Sticks poking out of the sea. Sea weed farms. Blue-ish green water as far as I can see. Tranquility and peace….a painting. Water colors…Faded blue and green smooth at the Edges. A filter of haze.
..September 2008 Nagasaki..
3 days in Nagasaki. Not many foreigners wandering around. Haven’t wandered to far away from the epicenter area. 15 minute walks in different directions. Still a lot of history visible. More history if you ask people to tell you their story.
Took a 10 minute walk. Crossed the river to the Shiroyama Elementary School. Located 500 meters from the epicenter. It’s a concrete building that was almost completely destroyed. But it’s one of a small handful of structures that had something left. It was reinforced after the reconstruction.
Walked through the damp cement classrooms. It serves as a museum/art exhibition. Rooms full of paper cranes and old photographs of the building before and after.
29 teachers and 110 students were killed instantly at the site. 1,400 school children, who were at their homes at the time of the bombing 11:02AM, were also killed. It’s a school but also a sacred ground for the children who perished here. It was there final resting place.
I thought about the children who once inhabited these rooms. They were attending school like any normal day. Innocent children.
….The present students in the classrooms at the new school built 50 feet from the Surviving building. How do you understand the story of what happened here when your that young? I don’t know if it’s possible until you’ve grown older.
This is the reality many don’t understand unless they take a trip to Nagasaki and speak to people.
We walked around the grounds. The school is perched on the side of a steep hill. The entrance looks like the opening of an orchard. Buildings hidden behind a wall of thick green foliage basking in the long hot humid Nagasaki summer.
Walked past an auditorium filled with young students. A type of assembly. Walked around a soccer field with swings. Imaged empty swings 64 years ago.
The same scene could have been occurring on August 9th, 1945 as today. An ordinary school morning. Children sitting in an auditorium not knowing what would happen. Never thinking they wouldn’t live another morning or be able to say goodbye. Children. It’s important to understand what has happened here.
..September 2008 Nagasaki..
“….Hiroshima is angry. And Nagasaki is praying. That’s the impression. We are not out going. We just pray….”
-Nagasaki Hibakusha (atomic bomb Survivor)
September 9, 2008
..September 2008 Bullet train to Nagasaki
Passing Hiroshima….I’m not sure if I realize what I stumbled upon. Do I appreciate what’s in front of me?
Photographing 11 atomic bomb Survivors in a short and intense amount of time. This is why I became a photographer…and have a hard time stepping away….
curiosity, Love, excitement…
..September 2008 Nagasaki..
8:02PM Hotel Room across from the museum. Sitting on the bed
My first night in Nagasaki. Sitting in my hotel room staring at a tv that only speaks Japanese. Outside the window I have a view of the atomic bomb epicenter. 64 years ago death and destruction reeked outside. Now I’m sitting in a business hotel a 1/2 block away.
I’ve traveled for 2 straight days. 16 hour flight New York to Tokyo. 5 hours sleep, 9 hours Tokyo to Nagasaki by train. It’s 8:00PM, I’m exhausted and curious about who I’ll meet in the morning when I start the first portraits. What will they say? Will they be offended I’m American?
..Nagasaki..
It’s pitch black outside the window. I can’t keep my eyes open. My body has traveled half the globe. ET on the tv dubbed in Japanese. Wake-up early. Walk around the epicenter. Get ready for portraits.
..Nagasaki September 7th,2008..
One hour after train ride, little before sunset. First time at the hypocenter
..I thought the epicenter would have drawn more of a crowd. Only 2 ladies and a father playing with his son wandering across the spot where the world’s greatest atrocity took place. The grass was very thin and spotted yellow from a summer long soaking of intense sunshine. Looked like any park in a forgotten neighborhood.
..September 8th, 2007 Second time at the epicenter, Nagasaki..
Walked to the epicenter at 6:30AM. A Japanese man walking across the park. Stops and bows in front of the monument. A deep bow. A sign of great respect. Continues to his destination. I wonder if this is how he starts most of his days?
..September 7th, 2008 Nagasaki, Japan 15:00..
My fear of Failing….My fear of Being Myself….My fear of someone else’s Thoughts….
…Arrived under a bright sunshine, while rain teared down from the clouds. I’ve never seen rain on a sunny day. Nagasaki is at the Edge of the Japanese main islands. No where to go once you reached the end…
Looked out at the small chain of islands that Seiichi’s grandmother witnessed the white flash of August 9th, 1945. 2 miles away on the shoreline. I’m sure she has seen it many times in her mind.
I don’t know what is inside me. Excitement, Desire, Fear, Boredom, Love, Revenge, Apathy, Lies, Truth, Complicated, Sympathy….
..September 2008 1 block from epicenter, Nagasaki..
..Where I realized how to love people..By myself..by the river 6PM sunset 1 block from epicenter..
..Where I realized why I traveled across the world to meet these people..Where I found emotion in Nagasaki..
..The first time I saw the reflection in the small stream running next to the epicenter, this was when the devastation hit me. It’s one of the most moving photos I took. Peaceful but remorseful.
..I first saw the reflection of the archway in the shallow water. As August 9th, 1945 grew older the pile of bodies multiplied in the canal. Eventually making a dam of corpses which stopped the running water. The corpses piled almost to the top of the 20 foot archway.
Along with the reflection of the archway, I can see the reflection of innocent that didn’t need to die. Why did this happen? It didn’t need to. This image has more of an effect on me than the epicenter. How can a scene so peaceful be a grave 64 years ago?
..Where I realized what happened. Where I realized war is fucking shit..that kills the innocent..
