Nagasaki:Art of Nagasaki 1

Photography/Nagasaki: Art of Nagasaki 1

Nagasaki is an atomic bombed city that remains in the history of the world. Many photographers took their shots in this land of the birthplace of Japanese photography before World War II. The exhibition of the same name held at the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum in 2005 focused on the deep relationship between photography and Nagasaki and the people associated with it, even before the city became an A-bombed site. From Toshinojo Ueno, who is credited with taking the first photographs in Japan, to his son, Hikoma Ueno. Tokutaro Nagami, a cultural figure and the author of “Katie Art book" who established artistic photography from the perspective of Japanese painting. Yosuke Yamahata, a military photographer, who photographed Nagasaki immediately after the atomic bombing. The book covers Ikko Narahara and Yuji Saiga of "Human Land," who photographed Gunkanjima, and Shomei Tomatsu, who photographed the people of Nagasaki 16 years after their exposure to radiation.
In 1961, Shomei Tomatsu visited Nagasaki at the request of the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, and was amazed at his own ignorance when he saw the bombing victims who were still suffering. He visited Nagasaki many times after that, and in 1998 he decided to emigrate. The relationship between Nagasaki and photography, which has kept his attention from prewar to postwar and up to the present, appeals to the world and the future from a very local perspective.



写真/長崎 長崎の美術1

世界史に残る被爆地、長崎。戦前は日本写真黎明の土地でもあるこの地で、シャッターを切った写真家は多い。長崎県美術館で2005年に行われた同名の展覧会は、被爆地である以前から深い写真と長崎の関係と、それにまつわる人間にフォーカスした。日本最初の写真を撮影したとされる上野俊之丞から、その息子上野彦馬。文化人であり、日本絵画の視点から芸術写真を築いた『夏汀画集』の永見徳太郎。従軍カメラマンであり、被曝直後の長崎を撮影した山端庸介。軍艦島を撮影した『人間の土地』の奈良原一高、雑賀雄二、そして被曝から16年後の長崎の人々を撮った東松照明まで網羅する。
原水爆禁止日本協議会からの依頼によって1961年に長崎を訪れた東松照明は、なお苦しみ続ける被爆者を目の当たりにし、自分の無知さに驚いたという。彼はその後、何度も長崎を訪れ、98年には移住を決断する。戦前から戦後、そして現在まで目を離させない長崎と写真の関係が、非常にローカルな視点から世界、そして未来に訴える。