..December 2016.. ..Nagasaki..
From Above exhibition at the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims is a part of 2016 Nagasaki International Peace Film Forum. The exhibition runs through December 25th.
The project hasn’t been exhibited in Nagasaki for two years so there are plenty of new portraits that are being shown for the first time in Japan.
..November 2016.. ..Nagasaki..
From Above will be exhibited at the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims as a part of 2016 Nagasaki International Peace Film Forum. The opening is on December 10th and the exhibition runs through December 25th.
The project hasn’t been exhibited in Nagasaki for two years so there are plenty of new portraits that will be shown for the first time in Japan.
..September 2008 Nagasaki..
7AM walk before 2nd day of portraits
….500 feet above my head the 2nd atomic bomb detonated on August 9th, 1945. Blood, fire, black rain, and heat engulfed everywhere around me. For a split second the temperature at the epicenter reached 1 million degrees. 100 feet to my right corpses piled on the river creating a dam of death that stopped the flow of water. The Urakami Cathedral a 1/2 mile down the street collapsed and fell down a hillside. Part of the tower still sits at the bottom.
..2nd day in Nagasaki at the epicenter of the atomic bomb, I don’t think the entire story has ever been told or ever will be comprehended.
The reality hit me seeing the bell tower of the Urakami Cathedral at the bottom of the hill. It once towered on the top of the hill overlooking canal. Toppled like a home made of wooden blocks thrown across a room.
I took some rocks from the grounds of Urakami Church and wrote Love, Peace, Compassion. Took a bunch of rocks home with Japanese writing. An unlikely souvenir that I will always keep.
..July 2010.. ..Nagasaki..
An old interview broadcast by NCC Nagasaki about my From Above exhibition, the first time it was exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Museum.
2 From Above NCC from Paule Saviano on Vimeo.
..June 2016.. ..New York..
This is the link to Thursday night’s interview about From Above on The John Batchelor Show on WABC Radio. We cover some of my journey to Hiroshima and Nagasaki photographing atomic bomb survivors (hibakusha) and the upcoming exhibition at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall opening in December.
A huge thank you to Mr. Batchelor for having me on the show for the third to speak about From Above. The John Batchelor show is the highest rated radio show in New York at the 9pm time slot. Honored again to be asked back to the show!
..September 2008 Nagasaki..
..It’s time I start to figure out who I am..
Instead of telling people where I am..
“Our World is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace.”
Gen. Omar Bradley
November 11, 1948
..January 2016 The Woman outside the White House..
Earlier today Concepcion Picciotto, the woman who maintained a three decade long vigil in front of the White House protesting the use of nuclear weapons, passed away.
I’ve seen her sitting in snow up to her waist and sweating in the oppressive August humidity. She out lasted 4 Presidents who slept about 100 yards away in the Lincoln Bedroom inside a mansion called the White House. I’ve been carrying a business card she handed me the first time I met her. It has shoved into the corner of my camera bag for 19 years.
Just weeks before atomic bomb survivor Mrs. Hisayo Yamashita passed away in 2010, she had asked me to bring a large package of socks, gloves and blankets from Japan to Mrs. Picciotto in Washington, DC.
“We cannot listen to the voices that vanished near the hypocenter.
No matter how many testimonies I gather, a blank will remain.”
-Masahito Hirose
Today I received the sad news that Mr. Masahito Hirose passed away, two months before his 86th birthday. I photographed Mr. Hirose on my second trip to Nagasaki. He was 15 years old when the atomic bomb destroyed the city. He didn’t sustain any external injuries from the blast but suffered from cancer.
After the H-Bomb test on Bikini Atoll in 1954, Mr. Hirose devoted his life to collecting the testimonies of other hibaksuha (atomic bomb survivors). While recording the stories it allowed him to confront his own tragic experiences.
Mr. Hirose spoke fluent English so he was one of the few hibakusha I was able to speak with directly. His language skills were important because he was one of the first to translate the hibakusha’s testimony into English. When I first read about him I immiediately asked if I could meet him. I have always been grateful for his honesty and time.
He will be missed but never forgotten.