Restricted Residence
“There is something about the invisibility of radiation, and its potential to kill silently. We have good reason to fear what we cannot see, or taste, or hear, or touch. If our senses offer no guide to the scale of the risk, we must assume the best or fear the worst.” – Fred Pearce, science and environmental writer.
Restricted Residence examines the relocation of Japanese citizens to Namie and Iitate, two towns exposed to extreme radioactivity following three nuclear reactor meltdowns and subsequent hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
A decade on from the leak, various medical agencies such as the World Health Organization, agree that the traumatic effects of the disaster have caused multidimensional and long-term mental health conditions. Studies reveal that the experience of the nuclear reactors exploding has become deeply embedded in people’s memories, and the radioactive fallout has brought with it chronic anxiety regarding the physical risks of radiation, a condition known as Radiophobia. Worries about livelihoods, lost social ties and concerns about compensation have led to the fracture of families and communities and all are associated with a rise in physical health problems, addictions and suicides. To date, over 2,250 deaths have been attributed to the disaster.
Despite inconclusive scientific consensus of the long-term effects of radiation in the area, in 2017 the Japanese government began to reduce the exclusion zones and heavily financially incentivise residents to return to what were formerly bustling towns, with nearly 27,000 living and working there. Now, the area is eerily empty, with just a few hundred people brave enough to return. With the reactor still unrepaired and uninhabitable radiation hotspots scattered across the landscape, some believe these areas will not be safe for 50 years or longer.
Restricted Residence employs thermal technology used in industrial surveying and medicine, but applied as a metaphor for hidden stresses of living in a potentially toxic environment. It raises questions about what exactly the human costs of manmade disasters are and our urgent need to find and implement energy systems that impact less on our environment and generations of the future.
‘Radiation is perhaps the most iconic of the invisible pollutants. For those of us who can see, vision is one of our most prominent senses. We depend on it so much that when something is not visible, we consider it non-existent. Giles Price addresses this potently in his “Restricted Residence” series. He reminds us that radiation is real. It can be seen. Price’s photographs call upon us to treat it as real.’ – Aileen Mioko Smith, Director of Green Action and co-author with W. Eugene Smith of ‘Minamata: A warning to the world’
‘His series is people-filled, but this is also a portrait of absence, invisibility and uncertainty. For, hidden deep within the images, Price captures something far more insidious – the questioning of what might be taking place, undetectable, within one’s own body. What hidden stresses – physical and psychological – are these people under? Can they ever truly understand the land they have decided to return to?’ – Tom Seymour for Wallpaper*
‘The use of the thermal camera is employed in sensible metaphor and offers a way in which to describe the unseen calamity harbouring at the edges of the atmosphere within. To call Price’s book clever would be a disservice to himself and those involved.’ – Brad Feuerhelm for ASX
‘The normalcy of the photos is misleading, forcing viewers to look for something that isn’t present. Price invites visitors, in a brilliant fashion, to experience the unseen weight of the psychological burden while attempting to grasp the impact of radiation.’ – Lily Katzman for Smithsonian Magazine
‘Price’s book encourages viewers to rethink their own perception about environments affected by tragedy.’ – Marigold Warner for British Journal of Photography
Monograph published by Loose Joints is available to purchase here.
“There is something about the invisibility of radiation, and its potential to kill silently. We have good reason to fear what we cannot see, or taste, or hear, or touch. If our senses offer no guide to the scale of the risk, we must assume the best or fear the worst.” – Fred Pearce, science and environmental writer.
Restricted Residence examines the relocation of Japanese citizens to Namie and Iitate, two towns exposed to extreme radioactivity following three nuclear reactor meltdowns and subsequent hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
A decade on from the leak, various medical agencies such as the World Health Organization, agree that the traumatic effects of the disaster have caused multidimensional and long-term mental health conditions. Studies reveal that the experience of the nuclear reactors exploding has become deeply embedded in people’s memories, and the radioactive fallout has brought with it chronic anxiety regarding the physical risks of radiation, a condition known as Radiophobia. Worries about livelihoods, lost social ties and concerns about compensation have led to the fracture of families and communities and all are associated with a rise in physical health problems, addictions and suicides. To date, over 2,250 deaths have been attributed to the disaster.
Despite inconclusive scientific consensus of the long-term effects of radiation in the area, in 2017 the Japanese government began to reduce the exclusion zones and heavily financially incentivise residents to return to what were formerly bustling towns, with nearly 27,000 living and working there. Now, the area is eerily empty, with just a few hundred people brave enough to return. With the reactor still unrepaired and uninhabitable radiation hotspots scattered across the landscape, some believe these areas will not be safe for 50 years or longer.
Restricted Residence employs thermal technology used in industrial surveying and medicine, but applied as a metaphor for hidden stresses of living in a potentially toxic environment. It raises questions about what exactly the human costs of manmade disasters are and our urgent need to find and implement energy systems that impact less on our environment and generations of the future.
‘Radiation is perhaps the most iconic of the invisible pollutants. For those of us who can see, vision is one of our most prominent senses. We depend on it so much that when something is not visible, we consider it non-existent. Giles Price addresses this potently in his “Restricted Residence” series. He reminds us that radiation is real. It can be seen. Price’s photographs call upon us to treat it as real.’ – Aileen Mioko Smith, Director of Green Action and co-author with W. Eugene Smith of ‘Minamata: A warning to the world’
‘His series is people-filled, but this is also a portrait of absence, invisibility and uncertainty. For, hidden deep within the images, Price captures something far more insidious – the questioning of what might be taking place, undetectable, within one’s own body. What hidden stresses – physical and psychological – are these people under? Can they ever truly understand the land they have decided to return to?’ – Tom Seymour for Wallpaper*
‘The use of the thermal camera is employed in sensible metaphor and offers a way in which to describe the unseen calamity harbouring at the edges of the atmosphere within. To call Price’s book clever would be a disservice to himself and those involved.’ – Brad Feuerhelm for ASX
‘The normalcy of the photos is misleading, forcing viewers to look for something that isn’t present. Price invites visitors, in a brilliant fashion, to experience the unseen weight of the psychological burden while attempting to grasp the impact of radiation.’ – Lily Katzman for Smithsonian Magazine
‘Price’s book encourages viewers to rethink their own perception about environments affected by tragedy.’ – Marigold Warner for British Journal of Photography
Monograph published by Loose Joints is available to purchase here.
