Naoya Hatakeyama, Rikuzentakata
(Lille: Light Motiv, 2016)
For Naoya Hatakeyama's book Rikuzentakata, I translated Hatakeyama's essay, "A Biographical Landscape," from French to English.
Otomocho-Ryogae, 25 November 2013
On March 11, 2011, a powerful tsunami struck northeastern Japan destroying virtually everything in its path. The photographer Naoya Hatakeyama was personally affected by this drama that destroyed his hometown, Rikuzentakata, and the landmarks of his memory.
Kesengawa, published by Light Motiv in 2013, was a book about the sensation of stupor that followed the destruction of these Japanese coastal cities.
Rikuzentakata, published in October 2016, is Hatakeyama's intimate narration: an observation of the birth of an unknown world amidst the clamour of construction machines. Faced with this transformation which concerns him so deeply, Naoya Hatakeyama's texts and photographs come together to outline a possible path for the future.