Fukushima Research Gallery
For the past seven years I have been regularly visiting communities recovering from the 2011 Great Eastern Japan earthquake, tsunami and radiation disaster, and in regular contact with friends there. As the radioactive evacuation order has slowly been reduced in size, these communities have started to rebuild their lives around its edges: traumatised, changed, but also with courage and extraordinary resilience and hope. The people I have met there have inspired and - importantly - encouraged Tsunami Girl. From the Futabaya Ryokan at the heart of Odaka's recovery, to newly established businesses like Hiraoka Masayusu's Fukushima Watch Company and Yu Miri's Full House bookshop and cafe, Odaka continues to rebuild step by step.
On the tsunami damaged road between Odaka and Fukushima Daiichi
Odaka Port, 12.3.11
With Tomoko-san, Odaka, 2024
Ukedo School, 2019
Aerial view of Odaka, Minamisoma.
Barriered Roads 2018
The inspirational Tomoko Kobayashi, Oct 2022
Masayusu Hiraoka, Fukushima Watch Company
Fukushima Watch Company model
Yuko Hirohata, Odaka March 2018
Retirement home, Evacuation Zone 2018
Zone checkpoint, March 2018
Okuma Town 2018
Staff at Yu Miri's Full House Bookshop and Cafe, Odaka 2022
Yuko Hirohata, Odaka Oct 2022
In the Futabaya, March 2023
Karin Taira of Real Fukushima, Oct 2022
With Kazuto Sugita, brilliant photographer and curry chef!
Stopped clocks, Futaba Memorial Museum