THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #4 Candle night
Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery will be organizing the first exhibition of 2017, Mayumi Suzuki’s “The Restoration Will.” She is one of the 2016 Photobook As Object workshop participants and she has been working on her book project “The Restoration Will” almost a year since the workshop and finally it’ll be launched at the exhibition. Prior to the show, Mayumi is sharing a series of her essay.
Mayumi Suzuki’s exhibition
March 4th to 26th. Open Everyday 1 to 7pm at the Reminders Photography Stronghold gallery.
Opening reception and artist talk on March 11th at 6pm.
© 2017 Mayumi Suzuki / The Restoration Will
Candle night
For us, March 11th is an important day, the anniversary of the tsunami. For victims, survivors and the bereaved families, it makes us concerned about how we spend this day. Some people visit graves or attend a ceremony which is organized by the government, others prefer to spend the time alone. Many people don’t want to watch TV (they always broadcast a sad documentary on March 11th and video of the tsunami brings back the trauma for us).
Last year on the fifth anniversary I invited my uncle, parents’ friends and neighbours to where the photo studio used to be. I had the idea to reproduce the community. They used to spend a lot of time with my parents and enjoyed talking at the studio. They loved my mother’s aromatic siphon coffee. I liked the story my parents’ had told me at sometime “We prepared coffee, it kept us warm.”
We started at 4:00pm, I needed to wait until sunset for shooting ( because of using my father’s lens).The first 20 minutes, we prepared candles, but it was very windy and just 2 degrees . It was getting colder and colder, someone said “It reminds us of the day. Actually today is March 11th!” Another said “ Exactly! I remember there was snow after the earthquake. We had survived, but why couldn’t your parents evacuate?” When I had finished taking the photo, they were almost crying. We might be able share the pain and sorrow. The photo seems to show the “hope” of candle light, but also it seems like the spirits of the dead are coming back to our town.
Text by Mayumi Suzuki,
English proofreading by Mike Ward
To be continued….
READ ESSAY ARHIVE
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #1 FATHER’S LENS BY MAYUMI SUZUKI
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #2 BLUE PORTFOLIO BY MAYUMI SUZUKI
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #3 BLUE WAVE BY MAYUMI SUZUKI
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