Photographer : Denis Rouvre
Location : La Pulperie de Chicoutimi – Musée régional
See, experience, attempt to understand, educate: this was Denis Rouvre’s project when he went on two occasions, without preconceived notions and an open mind, to the Tohoku region in Japan, which was devastated by the tsunami of March 11th, 2011.
While travelling through the zones that were devastated by nature’s blind fury and abandoned by its residents, the first thing he experienced was the silence. Then he met the survivors, photographed them, and recorded their stories. He has given a face and voice to those that live in prefabricated homes and wait patiently for a better life.
Denis Rouvre’s images, both portraits and landscapes alike, reflect a fraction of time when something has shifted and remains suspended in time. They are not meant to explain or demonstrate anything. Refusing to use sentimentality, the images record, with a sobering sharpness, the tracks of devastation that hint at the fractures within an entire society.