Author Description

This artists’ book engages with the belief that the atomic bombs dropped in Japan “saved lives” by ending the war, an idea referred to by historians as “The Hiroshima Narrative.” This book aims to trouble the narrative through an evidentiary examination of material that plays with proximity and reframing. Through re-photography of visual records made in 1945 by Japanese and American photographers—found on memorial plaques commemorating the loss of civilian lives, as well as “artistic” photographs of the sites in which they are found, I am to stimulate a reconsideration of what “Hiroshima” represents. On another level, my project reveals the process of historicizing the experience of being “the first A-bombed city” undertaken by Japanese survivors, organizations, historians, and governments. Finally, my own proximity and visitation of Hiroshima memorials mark shifts in distance, space, and time—past and present—while forcing a confrontation with the human costs of the bombings.