Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun

Kei Ito uses photography to examine the intergenerational trauma of nuclear disaster and the possibilities of healing and reconciliation. Ito’s grandfather, who survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, described the day as if there were “hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.” Ito uses camera-less techniques, exposing light-sensitive material to sunlight for the length of a single breath. In this way, he ties the invisibility of radiation (whether from the sun or nuclear weaponry) to the life-breath of the human body. Ito’s work also connects nuclear war’s impact abroad to the effects of nuclear testing on “down-winders” on the American continent. As a result, he poignantly underscores our collective inheritance in the nuclear age, as both the attacker and the attacked suffer at an apocalyptic, global scale.

Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun