Black_White_Photography_-_Winter_2014

13

B+W

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Steel Helmet with Skull Bone Fused by Atomic Bomb, Nagasaki 1963 by Shomei Tomatsu. Courtesy of Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo.

Kawada. Tomatsu’s 11:02 Nagasaki (1966)

is a statement of both the human cost and

the long-term effects of the aftermath of the

atomic bomb on the city and its inhabitants.

During many return trips to Nagasaki,

Tomatsu took portraits of Hibakusha, people

who survived the bombing but were left with

devastating scars, as well as making images

of objects found in the aftermath, including

a watch stopped at 11:02, the exact time the

A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Shown in London for the first time in its

entirety is Kikuji Kawada’s The Map (1959-

1965), originally published as a photo-book

20 years to the day after the bombing of

Hiroshima, The Map combines two bodies

of work – abstract photographs of the

decaying relic of the atomic bomb dome,

a ruined building close to the hypocentre,

and images of personal memorials for

the Japanese kamikaze pilots, made by

their families. The design of the book

with its double folded pages encourages

contemplation, as the images can only be

seen at a slow standard pace.

I

n 2003, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg travelled

to Saudi Arabia to photograph the

disappearing landscape of the Hejaz

Railway. The work, Train Stations of

the Hejaz Railway (2003) documents the

remains of one of the last great engineering

projects of the Ottoman Empire. Conceived

to connect Damascus to Mecca, and

ultimately the capital Constantinople, by

‘During many return trips

to Nagasaki, Tomatsu took

portraits of Hibakusha,

people who survived the

bombing but were left with

devastating scars.’

© Shomei Tomatsu

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