A surfboard mounted against a sea of sludge, whimsically defiant to the ruinous tide of debris. It's the kind of quirky beauty you might expect from Michael Arias, an American filmmaker based in Tokyo. Arias' creative work, in film through to his recent photographs of Tohoku, all paint with the same creative brush the defiant flowering of hope amid despair.
The surfboard shot is one of 100 photos sent to Nippon Connection's Japanese Film Festival in Frankfurt, Germany, for a special exhibition last weekend. Part of this year's festival was to raise awareness and funds for the continuing struggle of the tsunami survivors in Tohoku, and Arias, a frequent contributor on the film side, donated his personal photographs taken in the immediate aftermath of the March 11, 2011, tragedy. (The photos are viewable at www.giantrobot.com/features/photographs-of-tohoku/)
"I wasn't up there to take pictures," Arias says, "but you didn't have to search for footage. It was just everywhere."