International Photography Festival
In the city of Kyoto in western Japan, contemporary art exists somewhat in obscurity alongside the countless artisanal stores, souvenir shops and antiques galleries. However, the new international photography festival, Kyotographie, and its theme, ‘Our Environments’, set to integrate photo-based contemporary art among the beautiful streets and shrines for which the city is famous.
‘Our Environments’ worked well to unite various fields of photography—including journalism and fashion as well as contemporary art—with a humanist philosophy of being a part of the universe we live in, instead of being passive observers. Among the most compelling visual essays on this theme was Taishi Hirokawa’s series of photographs of Japan’s numerous nuclear power plants, taken in context of their surroundings. One image, 19 August 1993 Mihama Prefecture (1993), captures a protected beach, populated with families, which sits in the foreground with the power station perched on the cliffs above. The work illustrates the close proximity of the nuclear site to the rest of nature, as well as human civilisation.
The entire series was taken in the 1990s, as Hirokawa considered the dubious future of those sites. Two decades on, after Fukushima’s bases have become synonymous with the dangers of nuclear power plants, these photographs gain more immediate relevance to a general audience. The works were displayed in the green and quiet surrounds of Kyoto’s Shimogamo Shinto Shrine. In the exhibition’s text, Hirokawa is quoted at length explaining his concerns over nuclear energy. At the time of writing, almost all of Japan’s nuclear sites are decommissioned. However, the sites—as well as the radioactive waste created by this controversial power source—will remain hazardous for perhaps a thousand times longer. Hirokawa wonders how the future custodians
Taishi Hirokawa, 19 August 1993 Mihama Fukui Pref. © Taishi Hirokawa.
Shiro Takatani with Xavier Barrai, Barkhanes in the crater zone, from Mars, a photographic exploration. © NASA/JPL/The University of Arizona/ Éditions Xavier Barral. From video installation by Shiro Takatani.
