A Chicago-based commemoration project for the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, remembering the victims of disaster and documenting the region's recovery.
For the 6th annual Kizuna remembrance exhibition, I searched through past Chicago Kizuna archives and was awestruck by the excellent quality of photographs produced over the past six years. Photography functions on many levels, and all the previous Kizuna exhibitions have done an exemplary job of both chronicling a timeline of events, and documenting the lives and places that were changed forever by the tragic tsunami in 2011.
For this year’s selection, however, I abandoned the traditional constraints of chronological ordering and keeping to a singular theme, and instead sought out photographic compositions that illustrate what photography does best: telling a story within a discrete frame without needing additional information from adjacent content. The result is a group of images that are complementary and synergistic but not dependent on the photographs they are placed next to on the wall.
I also looked for images that best illustrate resilience, by being both indexical and allegorical. These photographs reveal the difficulties facing the community, while exemplifying the inner strength of the individuals depicted and the strength of the collective Japanese spirit that is capable of overcoming the worst of obstacles and participating once again in the fragility of life.
七転び八起き
Fall down seven times, get up eight — Japanese proverb
Alan Labb 2017
Kizuna 6 consisted primarily of images from previous photo exhibitions. View images from the commemoration ceremony and economic seminar below, or explore previous years of Kizuna through the Photo Gallery:
