Archive for March, 2017

Fragile

Friday, March 31st, 2017


Fragile

Thursday, March 30th, 2017


From Above

Saturday, March 25th, 2017

Dr. Shuntaro Hida

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017


“As a doctor who survived the atomic bomb, I have many missions to go on.
Till today, I lived for that mission.
If I don’t continue talking about the fierce
and unknown diseases caused by radiation; we will not find a cure.”

..March 2017.. ..Hiroshima..

Earlier this week I received the sad news that Dr. Shuntaro Hida died at the age of 100.

Dr. Hida experienced the atomic bomb when he was 28 years old, at a patient’s home 6km from the hypocenter. He treated the wounded almost immediately after the atomic bomb detonated. He continued to treat hibakusha and other radiation affected people until the end of his life.

I photographed Dr. Hida in 2010 at his home in Saitama, Japan. The photograph almost didn’t happen because he had been ill with pneumonia. Luckily he was released from the hospital on the last day of my trip. He was the only doctor I photographed for the project.

Hansa Str. 3, Dresden

Saturday, March 18th, 2017

..March 2017.. ..Dresden..

..The backdoor of Hansa Straße 3 led to a railway platform which was used to transport Jewish and Roma families, political opponents and POW’s to and from Dresden. As WWII progressed more forced labor was needed to maintain the war industry. Some of that labor arrived at this platform which was secluded from public view because it was a part of the Alte Leipizger Bahnhof, an industrial railway complex.

The deportations which took place two streets away at the Neustadt Bahnhof are well documented. But there is little documentation of the deportations and arrivals of people from this railway junction because the area was controlled by the military and wasn’t visible from the street. People entered on the street through Hansa Str. 3 and a back door opened steps away from a waiting freight car on the industrial tracks.

Today this area is populated by a trailer park community of artists. It’s still secluded from street and there are no markings of what happened here. I learned about it from an elderly man who had heard about what happened from others who lived through the war. He was able to find the little documentation available to confirm the stories.

This industrial railway area was not hit during the bombing of Dresden although it was only a 10 minute walk from the surrounding areas which were totally devastated by the attack. This area was one of the only not to be scorched.

The adjacent Alte Leipizger Bahnhof functioned during the GDR times (East Germany) for industrial use but was closed after reunification. It now stands in ruins after 25 years of neglect. Ironically it now resembles what a war scared building might look like even though it escaped WWII without being hit.


Mrs. Haruyo Nihei

Thursday, March 9th, 2017

Senso-Ji, Asakusa, Tokyo….

Wednesday, March 8th, 2017

..October 2008 ..Senso-Ji, Asakusa, Tokyo..


From Above, Kleines Haus Theatre, Dresden

Monday, March 6th, 2017

..February 2017.. ..Dresden..

Dresden firebombing survivors Nora Lang and Anita John in front of their portrait at the From Above exhibition in the Kleines Haus Theatre.

Mrs. Lang and Mrs. John grew up on the same street and have been friends from childhood. Both escaped death during the Dresden firebombings on February 13th, 1945.

From Above was shown as a part of the commemoration program in Dresden. The exhibition featured portraits of firebombing survivors from Dresden, Coventry (UK), Tokyo, Wielun (Poland) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). It was an honor once again to bring the exhibition back to Dresden.