The triple crisis of Tohoku Japan was probably the most minutely documented disaster in history. But some images were also lost, including the hundreds of thousands of family photo albums that were washed away by the tsunami. Almost immediately, photo collection and restoration projects emerged all over Japan. Professor David H. Slater (Cultural Anthropology and Japanese Studies, Sophia University) will addresses the various issues that have been raised therein, including the anxiety, ambivalence and obligation that surround the uncontrolled circulation and handling of other people’s photos; the pictures’ role in the formulation of loss, creation of hope and discharge of duty; and more speculatively, the interpretive challenges these pictures pose to representing a rural imaginary now very much gone.
Anne Allison (Cultural Anthropology, Duke) and Chris Nelson (Anthropology, UNC) will lead a discussion following the talk.
Sponsored by the Triangle Center for Japanese Studies and the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute.
DATE: March 1, 2012
LOCATION: Friedl 225, East Campus, Duke
TIME: 3:00-4:30pm
"Incurring Debt; Picturing Death: Japanese Family Albums Washed Away in Tsunami Waters" – David Slater, Sophia University, Tokyo
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