Akiyo Ohta Exhibition

Osaka Nikon Salon

This event has ended.

Oshima island was designated as a sanatorium for Hansen’s disease sufferers and as part of a national policy those in the surrounding region suffering from this condition were forcibly removed from their homes and families and made to live on this island until the law was finally abolished in 1996. In that same year Akiyo Ohta traveled to the island and met with its inhabitants. Returning 15 years on, he was startled to find that the population had dropped to below 100 residents, with two thirds of the people he previously photographed having already passed away and with an average age of 82, one does not like to imagine the future of this island in 10 or 20 years time. This new collection of photographs confronts us with the limits of time and our human way of life through 53 black and white prints.