Närvaro genom frånvaro: kroppens spår i Ishiuchi Miyakos serie ひろしま / hiroshima (2007–)

Abstract

This study examines Ishiuchi Miyako’s series ひろしま/hiroshima (2007–), portraying clothing worn by victims of the 1945 atomic bombing. It explores how images of material traces of trauma evoke a sense of presence of the absent bodies. By engaging with the images on a sensory and affective level, the study shows how formal elements and physical traces, such as graininess, burn marks, and bloodstains, activate the viewer’s senses and memory. Thus, absence emerges as a form of presence, making the absent body perceptible. This bodily and affective interaction enables an ethical and reflective encounter with trauma, requiring both proximity and distance. It proposes an empathetic mode of seeing that acknowledges the uniqueness of the other’s experience thus avoiding appropriation of the other’s trauma.