Takeshi Yamamoto
This project documents the long-term transformation of Fukushima following the 2011 earthquake and nuclear accident. Rather than focusing on the moment of catastrophe, it observes what remains as time moves forward and consequences persist. Houses have been dismantled, schools abandoned, railway platforms overtaken by vegetation. Infrastructure remains, but daily life has been removed.
These places are not traditional ruins; they are maintained, monitored, and managed. People rarely appear, and when they do, they remain peripheral. The focus is on the relationship between land, infrastructure, and control, and how environmental impact continues after public attention fades.
The work does not offer conclusions, but asks how we understand environments that cannot be fully abandoned or restored. Fukushima becomes a case study of a broader condition where human intervention reshapes landscapes into systems requiring continuous supervision.
Made between 2011 and 2025, duration is essential. Fields are maintained, roads remain passable, access is regulated.
Former Residential Area, 2025, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
Part of an ongoing long-term project on Fukushima, this photograph looks at a former residential area where the traces of ordinary life have been erased, yet the structure of the town remains.
Classroom Without Students, 2013, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
This image shows a classroom left behind in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, where the absence of children reveals how everyday life and community were interrupted and suspended.
Overgrown Platform, 2013, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
At an abandoned station platform in Fukushima, vegetation gradually overtakes public infrastructure, turning the site into a quiet record of absence and interrupted return.
Controlled Passage, 2016, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
This photograph shows a road enclosed by barriers in Fukushima, reflecting the controlled movement and spatial division that became part of everyday reality after the nuclear disaster.
Flexible Containers in the Mountains, 2021, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
This image shows flexible containers of contaminated material gathered within a mountainous landscape, where the aftermath of the disaster remains visibly embedded in the land.