A Chicago-based commemoration project for the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, remembering the victims of disaster and documenting the region's recovery.
Interview with Photographer Jamason Chen
Curator: 絆Kizuna 1 (2012), 絆Kizuna 2 (2013), 絆Kizuna 3 (2014), 絆Kizuna 4 (2015)
Photographer: 絆Kizuna 4 (2015)
​
Jamason Chen is a photographer, visual exhibition curator, essay contributor, video producer, new media and visual culture educator, and researcher. He currently manages media technology as the manager of technology and teaches photojournalism and VR visualization as the clinical professor in Loyola University Chicago’s School of Communication. He frequently contributes essays and special topic columns on photography and visual literature to the US and Asian journals. He published an essay collection “Photography Through the Fingertip” and co-translated and published the books “Visual Concepts for Photographers” and “Edward Steichen: A Biography”. He has curated photographic exhibitions and been a photographic juror in the US and Asia. Chen has been the portfolio reviewer for both student and professional in the Society for Photographic Education since 2009
"One subject I visited and photographed told me that he was an English teacher before the disaster. In the tsunami, he lost his family and his brother’s family, only his nephew survived. He has to give up his teaching career and take care of his family fishing business his father used to do and his nephew. He stood in front of the ruins of his family house and talked to me about his story. His eyes tell me how painful and regret he feels."
Full interview Transcript
Sophia Walker (SW), Kizuna Archive Team, interview with Jamason Chen (JC), Photographer
​
SW: How did you get involved with the Kizuna Project?
​
JC: In November of 2011, 8 months after the great earthquake in Tohoku, Yoko Noge (the Chicago bureau chief of the Nikkei News) came to me through a referral in the Chicago Tribune to discuss if it is possible to hold a photo exhibition about the disaster in Loyola University Chicago in the first anniversary of the disaster. Even though the university exhibition spaces had all booked, I agreed to work with Yoko to make the exhibition happen. Under the conditions of lack of fund and other resources, we received supports from Nikkei headquarters in Japan for archive photographs of the disaster and Calumet Camera for printing service. Finally with the space provided by the city hall, we had a first photo exhibition opened to the public on March 11, 2012, one year after the disaster.
SW: How did you feel working as a photographer in Japan after 3/11?
​
JC: I visited Tohoku area in 2014. I witnessed and documented how horrific and damages the disaster caused to the nature and people. As a photographer, I tried to document and present the horrifical impacts of the disaster as well as strength and positive spirit of people impacted by the disaster.
​
SW: How did you choose your subjects?
​
JC: Based on the schedule Yoko and her local coordinator in Japan Nobuko Nakamura made, we visited many sites, including local small businesses, the ground zero of the nuclear power plants, temporary housing for residents impacted by the tsunami. I tried to find subjects with stories of losses of life and recovery from the losses.
SW: Did working on the project change your understanding of the region or of 3/11?
​
JC: Definitely, especially through visiting Tohoku and listening stories of those victims, I became more understanding the long-last pain of the disaster brought to people’s life and how much people expected to restart a new life, and how serious of the tsunami caused nuclear plant disaster for a long term.
​
SW: Are there any moments that you remember particularly vividly?
​
JC: One subject I visited and photographed told me that he was an English teacher before the disaster. In the tsunami, he lost his family and his brother’s family, only his nephew survived. He has to give up his teaching career and take care of his family fishing business his father used to do and his nephew. He stood in front of the ruins of his family house and talked to me about his story. His eyes tell me how painful and regret he feels.
​
SW: What was it like to see the photo exhibit?
​
JC: I’ve curated and participated in the exhibition project for 5 years since the inaugural one on 3/11/2012. When I saw the exhibition went through 10 years, I felt all efforts we made to bring stories of the disaster and recovery Tohoku suffered and thrived to the city of Chicago enhanced communication and understanding between Japan and the U.S in general and Tohoku and Chicago in particular.
​
SW: Did you get any reactions?
​
JC: I had some of my students worked on the project as volunteers. They learned a lot through working on panel designs and installations, especially learned how important as a global community we should work together to build a better world.
​
SW: What do you wish more people knew about 3/11?
​
JC: Wish people could discover how we should live with the nature harmonically and support each other when we are facing challenges from the nature and human caused mistakes.
​
SW: This is the last Kizuna Project to happen on a yearly basis. How did you think commemoration of 3/11 will change going forward?
​
JC: Probably we should take this specific disaster as an example to discuss much broader impacts of the disaster, especially those human made mistakes, to human society and life.
​
SW: Do you have any questions about our project or thoughts on things you would want to see included in a digital archive of the Kizuna Project?
​
JC: Not really, or maybe add some open questions to inspire people to think further actions and solutions both preventing any further damages of a natural disaster when we handle it and improving human decision making and process in recovery from the disaster
Jamason Chen (right) with fellow photographer Kiyotaka Shishido at the 2016 commemoration ceremony