Hiroshima Graph - Everlasting Flow
Yoshikatsu Fujii
Yoshikatsu Fuji was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, in 1979. After studying film at Tokyo Zokei University, he began producing photographs in 2006. His main theme is history and memory related to social issues. His work “Red String,” which focuses on the relationship between his divorced parents and himself, was published in 2014 as a hand-bound photo book with a limited number of copies. The book gained attention, having been nominated for several awards, including the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation Book Prize, and being selected as one of the best photography books of 2014 by numerous publications, including the American Time magazine. Since 2015, he has been based in his hometown of Hiroshima, where he is working on a long-term research project called “Hiroshima Graph.”
© Yoshikatsu Fujii - Statement -
Fuji, who is based in Hiroshima, finds it difficult to perceive the traces of the atomic bombing now that the city is lined with high-rise buildings and the number of A-bomb survivors has dwindled.
Fuji asked his grandmother about her A-bomb experience to learn about his family’s history, which he had never been told by anyone before. He learned for the first time how the slightest thing can make the difference between life and death, and how his grandmother barely survived. However, when she talked about the people she could have saved, a heavy, dark look of sorrow appeared on her face. Through this work, Fuji examines what happened to his grandmother on August 6, 1945, how she lived her life after that, and how she is connected to the artist’s generation, giving shape to this important part of his family’s history.