Otsuchi Future Memories

The small fishing town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, was probably the worst destroyed by the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011.

The small fishing town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, was probably the worst destroyed by the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. There, roughly ten percent of the population was killed or went missing and sixty percent of residential buildings sustained damaged.

This project connects images of inhabitants of Otsuchi that survived the tsunami with recovered family photographs that were swept away by the tsunami by putting them together, past and present. The colors found in the destroyed photographs are picked up and used to tint the B&W portraits of the residents of Otsuchi. Then, colors constitute a bridge between the recovered photographs from the past and photographs of the present, as a dialogue is established between them.

Otsuchi Future Memories intends a reflection on the dynamic relationship between family photographs and our memories when such tragedies happens. The tsunami caused considerable material damage, killing people and destroying entire communities, but above all, the survivors also face the intangible loss of their own memories and identities in which family photographs play a fundamental role.