Burning Away: Under My Skin

My work addresses issues of generational connection and deep loss as I explore the materiality of photography. The pieces deal with the tragedy and legacy passed on from my grandfather who survived the bombing of Hiroshima, and the threat of today’s nuclear disaster. Before his passing, my grandfather told me the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima “...was like hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.” Drawing upon my grandfather’s words, I mainly use the techniques of camera-less photography, exposing light sensitive material to sunlight. The materials and objects used to create my imagery on the prints always have a conceptual significance tied to irradiated personal and collective trauma. These sun-fused, Xray-like prints are displayed in a way that reflects the idea of a monument.

"Burning Away" is a chemigram series which utilized honey and various oils on a sun-fused silver gelatin paper in a recreation of the numerous stories by survivors seeking to heal the charred trauma.

The materials used to form this imagery is rooted in my generational trauma of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, which claimed many lives including my grandfather. The moment the bomb exploded in the sky of Hiroshima, it created a giant fire-ball reaching the surface temperature of 7,700 degrees matching the temperature of the Sun itself. The heat wave vaporized the people near the ground zero and left devastating burns on those left alive. I found many stories of survivors treating the burns with honey, cooking oil and even motor oil due to the scarcity of even the most basic medicine.

The blinding heat was indeed a great threat; however, the invisible threat of radiation is what makes nuclear weapons truly devastating. Many of the survivors were unaware of the invisible threat that was implanted within their bodies, like a second bomb waiting to go off. It was their children and grandchildren who were witnesses of the effect of radiation.

By utilizing the same substances described in their accounts to desperately heal the charred trauma, these prints symbolize not only the memory of nuclear fire, but also the disappearing voices of the survivors. The pattern of the print depends on the type of oil used on the paper, creating various microscopic like images that may remind one of cancer cells.