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Maker(s):Tomatsu, Shomei
Culture:Japanese (1930-2012)
Title:Atomic Bomb Damage: Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945, Nagasaki
Date Made:1961
Type:Photograph
Materials:gelatin silver print
Measurements:sheet: 8 1/16 in x 7 15/16 in ; 20.5 cm x 20.2 cm; image: 7 5/16 in x 7 3/16 in ; 18.6 cm x 18.3 cm
Accession Number:  AC 2004.244
Credit Line:Purchase with Wise Fund for Fine Arts
Museum Collection:  Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
2004-244.jpg

Label Text:
Tomatsu, a self-taught photographer, is known for his poetic approach to documentary photography, creating images that transcend time-bound events. This photograph shows the isolated face of a wristwatch unearthed seven-tenths of a kilometer from the epicenter of the atomic bomb explosion in Nagasaki, Japan.

The glass face of the timepiece is badly chipped and damaged. A black void exists where the minute and hour hands once came together, and the strap that bound it to a wrist is gone. The damaged object is pictured from an aerial perspective, placed on a soft fabric. Its weight radiates a gray abstract shadow that suggests a bomb blast, and its central location mirrors that of the red orb of the Japanese flag. Tomatsu’s wristwatch is a symbolic expression of time arrested, of death.

Tags:
clouds; wars; time; aggressiveness; damage; destruction

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2004.244

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