Empty heaven, photographs from Japan, 1989-1995

Le livre

This is a collection of photographs examining contemporary Japanese society. The photographer, Paul Graham, identifies a collective amnesia in Japan which, 50 years after the end of World War II, obscures the memory of total defeat and unconditional surrender. Simultaneously, the book recognizes the cloud of benevolence masking the true source of political power. There are pictures of a young girl, an elderly statesman, an atom flash, a candy wrapper, and a cloud of cherry blossoms. This book reveals the invisible by showing the visible, and is a volume of images about a world the West neither really knows nor understands.