Paris Photo is the largest international art fair dedicated to the photographic medium and is held each November at the historic Grand Palais in Paris. Since 1997, the Fair’s mission is to promote and nurture photographic creation and the galleries, publishers and artists at its source.
The photographs that IBASHO will exhibit at Paris Photo Prismes are from Hiromi Tsuchida's project entailing a profound exploration of the impact of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Tsuchida started photographing objects from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum 37 years after the bomb, returning for a second time in 1995 to continue the series. Tsuchida has stated that 'the event at Hiroshima did not end in 1945; but began a new historical era leading toward the 21st century.' Neither Tsuchida nor his family were present at the explosion, however it is this gap between experiencing the explosion and encountering the traces of it that his work explores. He has photographed the victim's personal belongings as a 'documentarian'. This neutrality is evident from the simple presentation of each personal object, accompanied by a note about its owner and their distance from the hypocentre at the moment of the atomic blast, 8:15 a.m. on 6 August 1945. As museum artefacts, these ordinary things have been called upon to represent the devastating impact of the bomb. They might also be seen as stand-ins for their owners, making Tsuchida's work a form of posthumous portraiture.
In 1985 Tsuchida's photos of Hiroshima travelled throughout Japan and abroad in an exhibition sponsored by UNESCO.
The display at Paris Photo contains vintage prints from 1985 and 3 large modern prints. The notes about the object's owners will be an integral part of the presentation.