"There's a Shadow of a Man": Hiroshima 70 Years After

The project investigated Hiroshima 70 years after the drop of the atomic bomb “Little Man” on 6 August 1945. It looked at life in and around Peace Memorial Park, built on the open field created by the explosion, the first officially known “ground zero.” The particular focus was on the citizens of Hiroshima and how they interact with the legacy of the catastrophe. The result is mixed. Some citizens speed by the A-bomb dome on foot or on their bicycles, taking no notice of it; others come every Sunday to sing in front of the peace arch. Some interact with tourists and line them up to take their pictures. The atomic bomb produced a blazing light that turned absolutely everything, human beings as well as the entire material world, into shadows. Thus, the shadow occupies a central position in the photographs, it is both an optical phenomenon and a symbol of the specter of the past. The series starts with images of images of shadows during the explosion that run in a film inside the Peace Center and then keeps the shadow as a key element in the portrayal of Hiroshima’s citizens. It is also understood self-reflectively, in the sense of the photograph of the photographer and the fact that Hiroshima also haunts today’s conflicts and political situations.