Otsuchi. Future Memories

This book documents the effects of the powerful earthquake that struck the northeastern coast of Japan in March of 2011, followed by the tsunami that overwhelmed the town of Otsuchi in the prefecture of Iwate. This fishing com-munity of 15,000 inhabitants was one of those most damaged by the succes-sive waves, which reached eighteen meters in height and destroyed almost 60% of the town.

The book gathers family photographs of the inhabitants of Otsuchi, found after the disaster, and places them in dialogue with images of the survivors amidst the ruins of their homes. It also recovers the colors of the archival pho-tographs, in many cases blurred or washed out, in order to color the portraits of the survivors. In this way, color constitutes a bridge between the images of past and present, establishing a connection between them.

Otsuchi: Future Memories leads us to reflect on the dynamic relationship between family photographs and our memories in the wake of such calamities. The 2011 tsunami took a toll in human lives, destroyed entire commu- nities, and caused untold material damage, but above all it left the survivors with the intangible loss of their own identity and memories, in which family photographs play a fundamental role.