#3.11.11

The show features nearly 100 works by 17 photographers. To get that selection, Morse and her colleague, Anne E. Havinga, traveled all over Japan to seek out a range of both established talents and lesser-known photographers. As the women discovered, all of the artists felt affected by the day's events, no matter where they were on March 11, 2011.

"With Japan's nuclear past, [an event such as the one at Fukushima] strikes a very strong chord," Morse said. "It's not removed, in that sense."

Nor is it easy to talk about such events in Japan. In the Wake marks the first exhibition based on 3-11, a distinction Morse attributes to the American venue, which may offer some distance and perspective to the tragedy.

"In Japan, there's still a sense, I think, that it is too soon," Morse said. "We felt strongly that it needs to be done while we can still contribute to the dialogue."

The exhibition is divided into two sections: The first revolves around the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, while the second focuses on the Fukushima disaster and its aftermath.

"The approaches were different, and people in Japan see these as separate events," Havinga said. "From a non-Japanese point of view, this is often seen as one disaster, so in our presentation we tried to show it in another light."

Manipulating the photographs was one way artists chose to exert control over the tragedy, infusing an otherwise point-and-shoot recording of events with emotion. Nobuyoshi Araki (above), for example, took a pair of scissors to a black-and-white photograph of people walking across a street, umbrellas in hand. The angry gouges resemble black rain, Havinga said, which is a common motif in Japan when making reference to Hiroshima — a comparison that she said returned again and again.

Another artist, Seto Masato (below), managed to enter the Fukushima zone — still not an easy task — and make photographs of what, to the naked eye, appears to be a lush, wild area being overtaken by nature.

"But he printed the photographs as negatives," Havinga explained. "That's all about making the invisible radiation 'visible,' illustrating how hard it is now to believe the zone is still contaminated."

"With most of the Japanese artists we visited, I don't want to say they were pleased, but they were relieved to be considered for an exhibition that would get another community involved," Morse said. "It reminds people that 3-11 is an ongoing event for the Japanese. And if we do it here, then it makes it perhaps easier for them to do it there."