Philippe Chancel Fukushima: The Irresistible Power of Nature
Rikusentakata_GPS_39°1’14’’N 141°37’23‘’E 2011-06-13 03:48:35 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Higashimaecho_GPS_39°16’23’’N 141°53’36’’E 2011-06-14 07:59:36 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Sendai_GPS_38°2’20’’N 140°55’10’’E 2011-06-12 04 :04 :44 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Minamisanriku_GPS_38°54’20’’N 141 34’ 22’’ E-2011-06-13 04 : 52 :47 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Minatoguchi_GPS_37°43’22’’N 141°0’29’’E-2011-06-07 05 :10 :39 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Rikusentakata_GPS_39°0’11’’N 141°40’27 E-2011-06-13 05:29:44 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Kitashita_GPS_38°0’5’’N 140° 54’ 20’’E 2011-06-08 02:44:56 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Onagawa_GPS_38°26’32’’N 141°26’40’’E 2011-06-10 5:48:048 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Ishinomaki_GPS_38°34’29’’N 141°27’0’’ E 2011-06-13 01:32:08 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Kesennuma_GPS_38°54’55’’N 141° 34’53’’E 2011-06-12 06:17:56 G.M.T, Tohoku, Japan, 2011.
Artist's Statement
On 7 June 2011, less than three months after the havoc caused by the tsunami in the Tohoku region of northwest Japan and the outbreak of nuclear contamination around Fukushima, I headed north from the line marking the 20 km red exclusion zone around the nuclear reactor. Ten days later, having driven over 500 km and covered even greater distance on the ground in search of an area left intact, I reached the outskirts of Miyako.
What I saw was beyond imagination. The scale of the devastation caused by the tsunami and its impact recalled aspects of the effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In the aftermath of the disaster, I instinctively sought to capture a different reality from the facts themselves – a deeper, underlying reality. The silent suffering, that I saw and felt everywhere I went, was that of a hard-hit country bitterly questioning its cruel destiny. In my quest for emblematic images, I recorded the documentary aspects of the tragedy in a quasi-systematic, serial manner. Using GPS data I reconstructed my journey from satellite photos taken at the same time and captured on Google Earth. This way, my preview research became reality.
This work is part of Datazone, a project that I began in North Korea and the United Arab Emirates, before moving on to Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Kabul, Afghanistan, and that will soon take me even further afield to such places as Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Baghdad and Barnaul, the Russian city closest to the Altai Mountains. The lack and/or overabundance of images, as well as the broader question of representation, are central to my investigations at the crossroads of art, documentation and journalism. Without being obliged to respond, but simply gaze alone, I seek to provide food for thought on political and philosophical issues confronting the civilisations of the world today.
About the photographer
1959, Paris, France
French
Paris, France
About Philippe Chancel
Philippe Chancel works and lives in Paris and was introduced to photography at a young age. He took an economics degree at the University of Paris (Nanterre) followed by a postgraduate diploma in journalism at the CFPJ in Paris. Over the past twenty years his work has explored the complex, shifting and fertile territory where art, documentary and journalism meet. His series is a constantly evolving project, focusing on the status of images in the contemporary world.
His work has been widely exhibited, and featured in a number of publications including Regards d’artistes and Souvenirs, a series of portraits of capital cities (Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Brussels) glimpsed through shop windows and North Korea which brought him international recognition. His photographs of Pyongyang were also exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery, London as part of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2007. Philippe Chancel’s book Workers Emirates, published by Bernard Chauveau, is his latest photo essay. The project was initially presented at the 53rd Venice Biennale in the Abu Dhabi pavilion and was part of the Dreamlands exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2010 and has since toured the world. His work is included in many important public and private collections.
Philippe Chancel is currently working on a new long-term project entitled Datazone, which aims to explore the many-faceted aftermaths within the documentary field, revealing some of the world’s most singular lands which are either always in the news or, conversely, hardly ever figure on the media radar. This exploration has already taken him from Port-au-Prince to Kabul via Fukushima and Barnaul. Fukushima: The Irresistible Power of Nature is part of the Datazone project.
Power Shortlist
Luc Delahaye, Various works, 2008 – 2011
Robert Adams, Turning Back, 1999-2001
Daniel Beltrá, Spill, 2010
Mohamed Bourouissa, Périphérique, 2005-2008
Philippe Chancel, Fukushima: The Irresistible Power of Nature, 2011
Edmund Clark, Guantanamo: If the Light Goes Out, 2009
Carl De Keyzer, Moments Before the Flood, 2009-2011
Rena Effendi, Still Life in the Zone, 2010
Jacqueline Hassink, Arab Domains, 2005-2006
An-My Lê, 29 Palms, 2003
Joel Sternfeld, When it Changed, 2005
Guy Tillim, Congo Democratic, 1997-2006