LOST & FOUND: 3.11 Photographs from Tohoku

Monday, April 2–Friday, April 27, 2012
Aperture Foundation
547 W. 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Aperture Foundation presents LOST & FOUND: 3.11 Photographs from Tohoku, a profoundly moving exhibition of photographs recovered from the devastation following the two epic natural disasters and the subsequent nuclear catastrophe that took place in the Tohoku region of Japan a year ago, last March.

This exhibition offers us an opportunity to think about the relationship people have with their photographs, and also to consider the significance of photographs themselves. LOST & FOUND: 3.11 Photographs from Tohuku reflects the transitive nature of existence, the power of nature over humankind, and the reconstruction of a hopeful future.

The Lost & Found Project began as a volunteer activity called “Salvage Memory,”  which aimed to recover the photographs that were damaged by the tsunami and return them to their owners, by sweeping the dirt off, rinsing them with water, and taking pictures of the photographs to create digital data. More than 500 people volunteered for this project, and 2,176 photo albums and 29,808 photographs were returned to their owners.

Unfortunately, more than 30,000 photos were too badly damaged and could not be returned. These are the photographs that comprise the exhibition, in order to give people an opportunity to see them, in the belief that they carry powerful messages. More information about Lost & Found is available here.

LOST & FOUND: 3.11 Photographs from Tohoku was previously shown at Hiroshi Watanabe’s Studio-Gallery in Los Angeles, and parts of it will travel to London, Paris, and Milan, with different installations in each location, making each exhibition a unique and personal experience.