March 11 - April 16, 2016
POLKA GALERIE

KOSUKE OKAHARA

FRAGMENTS

Polka Galerie is proud to present the work of the Japanese photographer Kosuke Okahara.
For the occasion of his rst monographic exhibition in our headquarters, Okahara will be presenting
Fragments, a body of work he completed from 2011 to 2015 in Fukushima.

On Friday the 11th of March 2011, following the earthquake of the Paci c coast of Tohoku, Kosuke Okahara decided to return to Japan. His aim: “to take photographs for History“. Over a period of four years – with his Geiger counter – he routinely col- lected photographic “fragments“ of the disaster.

“How will people react when they will see these photos? And how will this catastrophe be perceived in the future?“ With these questions in mind, Kosuke Okahara spent four years roaming the streets of Fukushima. Winston Churchill once said: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it“. The aim of Okahara’s approach is to ght against collective amnesia. “I began photographing Fukushima at the end of March. When I arrived I was shocked by the absolute silence. The city was deserted, yet I could still perceive traces of recent life. The entire population had disappeared in a ash, like in a horror or science- ction movie. While some places are slowly dying out over time, with a gradual decay in population, in Fukushima it seemed as though every single soul was kidnapped in a matter of seconds.“

In 2015 Kosuke Okahara’s series Fragments was published in the eponymous book by La Martinière editions.

Kosuke Okahara was born in Japan in 1980. After graduating in 2003 from Tokyo Waseda University, he began a career which has taken him all around the world. Though he spent his early days in photography working with color, he quickly decided to only work in black and white. Member of Agence VU’ until 2010, Kosuke Okahara was awarded by many prizes amongst which the W. Eugene Smith Fellowship (2010) and the Pierre & Alexandra Boulat award (2014).