After Fukushima, part 2

Yasuko Hamabata lives in Tokyo, but for a year and a half she has worried about her exposure to radiation from Fukushima Daiichi. During a trip to Fukushima city, she goes to the Citizens’ Radioactive Measurement Station—a privately-run radiation detection lab in a downtown mall—to have her dosage measured.

To understand the impacts the 3.11 disaster has had on Japan, I think it's first important to consider the three-part nature of what happened and where.

First the earthquake destroyed buildings all over central Japan — over a million buildings collapsed or were damaged (1). But in most places, of course, the damage was disparate, some buildings destroyed while neighbors were fine.

Then, in the next hour, the tsunami wiped out the east coast of central Japan, especially a 420 mile stretch of coastline, up to six miles inland (2). After that, the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown started the first day and continued for a month (or thousands of years, depending on your perspective), most affecting people within 20 miles but extending northwest from the plant in a plume.

Now think of the consequences: loss of life and family, property, community, employment, health, psychological health. Compared to the deaths (18,549 killed or missing) and physical destruction from the tsunami, to some the radiation seems secondary.

But here is the critical issue: when your home gets washed away, the damage you see is immediate and obvious. When you are hit by radiation, the consequences are never so clear. It's all a game of probabilities. How much? How dangerous? How soon will it affect me?

As I saw in Chernobyl, this uncertainty is maddening for survivors of such a disaster, and the answers to many many questions never come.

Tomorrow: different ways radiation affects people.

Sources: (1) National Police Agency of Japan, (2) Bloomberg.

thinking of Fukushima

Today I'm thinking of all my friends in Fukushima. Today is the second anniversary of Japan's 3.11 Earthquake and the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

I spent three weeks in Fukushima last year. For the next 2 weeks I will share a photo a day from my new After Fukushima project.

A map of Fukushima Prefecture hangs in the lobby of the Koriyama Baptist Church. Photos attached to nails mark the  hometowns of friends of the church, some of whom have moved away. Japanese-American pastor Nobumasa Tajima runs the church with his wife Beverly. The Tajimas lead weekly trips to temporary shelters still housing evacuees from the 3.11 earthquake. “In Japan, people don’t do charity work except after a disaster. We bring people food. But they don’t need food. They need comfort,” says Nobumasa Tajima.

While we're looking at a map, here's some quick geography: Fukushima Prefecture (province) is in central Japan. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is on the east coast (center of this photo), in a region of small fishing and farming towns, 160 miles north of Tokyo and 67 miles south of Sendai.

The border of the Evacuation Zone now ranges from 6 to 35 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi, but does not extend as far as the three major cities of the province (marked with nails above, from N to S), Fukushima City, Koriyama and Iwaki, 32 to 50 miles away.

The estimates of evacuees still displaced vary widely, from 150,000 to 300,000, while each of the three major cities have populations of 300,000 or more.

More tomorrow.

SOURCES: Japan Road Atlas (Shobunsha), Google maps, NY Times, Asahi Shimbun.

Exhibit, symposium, movie, book, photos! Oh my!

Friends, it's been a busy time here recently. Some exciting news and events:

The Susquehanna River, viewed at night from the Route 201 bridge in Vestal, NY, remained well above flood stage 4 days after it flooded in September 2011 following Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

• Some of my photos from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee (published in the book Flood 2011) are in the exhibit Mighty Susquehanna: Friend and Foe, opening at the Vestal Museum (near Binghamton, NY) on March 10, 1-3 pm. Exhibit runs through May 25.
• March 11 is the second anniversary of Japan's 3.11 earthquake. Each day this week I'll post a new Fukushima photo on my blog and Facebook page.
  
• My photos from Fukushima will be screened at the University of Hawaii, part of the symposium Japan After 3.11:  Change and Hope from the Center of Triple Disasters. March 10, 2 to 4:30 pm at the Center for Korean Studies Auditorium at UH Manoa.  Details here.
• My brother Davy premieres his new documentary film Medora this week at SXSW. Screenings March 10, 12, 14. Schedule here.
•  Blurb.com invited me to be one of the photographers featured in their new Designer Collection. The release date for my blurb After Chernobyl book is March 13.
•  FINALLY, the biggest news I can't tell you yet. Look for an announcement here later this month about my exciting project due out in July.

Catskills nature photo workshop

I'll be doing a nature photography workshop this Sunday in the Catskills, part of the annual Lark in the Park celebration.

Should be beautiful fall foliage, fun activities and — thanks to the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development — it is free!

Sunday 9/30 from 9 am to noon at the Platte Clove Preserve near Hunter, NY. For more information and to pre-register please contact Jonathan Mogelever at jomgelever@catskillcenter.org or 845-586-2611.

More details here: www.catskillmountainclub.org/activities.html

My brothers take New York

Davy and Peter Rothbart sing The Booty Don't Stop at their Found show in Brooklyn.

Check out this great article about Davy and Peter in today's New York Times!

My brothers had a fun show in Brooklyn last night. Tonight there is another show, in Manhattan. Here is the whole tour schedule.

People who have only known them for a decade or less will not be surprised. But sometimes I think back to our childhood and wonder: Who could have predicted? That my two little brothers would grow up to stand in front of crowds of friends and strangers to sing movingly about miscarriage (from Peter's new album) or read — also movingly — about phone sex (from Davy's new book).

You kids make me proud.

Limited edition of Phoot Camp photos

Socks. With stripes. As seen during a 1980s video shoot at Phoot Camp.

Our Phoot Camp exhibit in Brooklyn has ended, but fear not — a limited edition of our photos are now available here: http://phootcamp.bigcartel.com/.

That page is also a great way to see the exhibit — a drop in the creative bucket that Phoot Camp is all about. See more Phoot photos here — on the Instagram feed and Tumblr page.

Someday on Vimeo

When do we first fall in love with our kids?

Photojournalist Michael Forster Rothbart tells his story.

This story first appeared in THE MOMENT, a book of wild, poignant, life-changing stories from artists and writers famous and obscure, published by Harper Perennial in 2012.

Someday: one father's story from Michael Forster Rothbart on Vimeo.

Earlier this year, my story was published in The Moment, a collection of personal essays. Today I finished editing this video, to be shown on the Smith Magazine website and at book readings.

Waterfall a la Hockney

This collage may be my favorite picture from Phoot Camp last week. This little waterfall flows into Esopus Creek in Cathedral Gorge, a peaceful glen at Ashokan Center where we had Phoot. My 8-photo collage shows a 270 degree vertical panorama.

I've been re-obsessed lately with painter/photographer David Hockney and the collages he made. He said: "photography is all right if you don’t mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralysed cyclops." Making collages, he "realized that this sort of picture came closer to how we actually see, which is to say, not all-at-once but rather in discrete, separate glimpses which we then build up into our continuous experience of the world.”

Jean-Paul's first trip to America

This is what Jean-Paul, a Frenchman, did on his first trip to America. I met him and his family last week at Blue Hole, a swimming hole in the Catskills, during Phoot Camp.

Apparently Jean-Paul mooned me. I missed it while photographing someone else, so he did the hokey-pokey and he turned himself around.

Almost everyone who sees this photo laughs when they first see it. But then they either love it or hate it, and I've been trying to understand why. Some viewers can't get past Jean-Paul's one-eyed trouser snake, but for me, it is the reactions that make this photo. Jean-Paul's girlfriend Gigi is shocked and embarrassed. Her daughter-in-law Dawn is just mortified. As a documentary photographer, I treasure such unscripted, genuine moments.

I've posted a censored version here. If you want to see what you're missing, follow this link.

Photoville exhibit opens Friday

I just got home from Phoot Camp. What a fabulous experience, hanging out in the woods with some of the most creative photographers I've ever met. Now we're gearing up for our Phoot Camp exhibit. It's part of the Photoville photography festival in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Our opening is this Fri 7 pm, but the festival opens at 4 pm June 22 and goes thru July 1.

Find our exhibit next to the NY Times exhibit. We'll be the ones with the hammock. Or tire swing. (Still working out details!)

Give me a shout if you want to join me for dinner Friday.

More event details here.

More phun at phoot camp

Blue Hole in Sundown, NY.

http://instagr.am/p/L86ADwvUMB/

http://statigr.am/p/215258473888413287_150188

That water was freezing.

The Phoot Camp has landed

Tonight is the first night of Phoot Camp! Take 35 photographers. Put them in the north woods. Add fire, LED lights and alcohol. This is what you get.

Things get crazier as the night goes on. Tube socks! More lights! Fire jumping! And this is just the first night...

Phoot camp

Self-portrait with Jacob and scissors.

Next week, I am headed off to Phoot Camp, which is like summer camp for photographers. Very exciting. I am amazed and delighted and a bit trepidatious as I look at the amazing self-portraits of my fellow phoot-ographers and read about them here.

The End of Center St

Today was the Oneonta school budget vote. A YES vote would have kept our neighborhood Center Street school open for another year. An unofficial tally is in: 726 Yes votes and 1,901 No votes.

My photojournalism students from Hartwick College have been photographing at Center St for the last 3 weeks. A few of their photos are below. They will present a full slideshow of their work to the entire Center St school on May 24 at Sing and Celebrate.

Third grade students in Joseph Collier’s class at Center Street School in Oneonta, NY, decorated their windows with an S.O.S (Save Our School) message. An Oneonta School District budget vote on May 15 will determine whether Center Street will remain open next year. Photo by Michaela Shipman.

A student locks his bike to the bike rack outside Center Street Elementary School before the school's Ice cream Social on May 4th, 2012. The majority, roughly 80%, of Center Street's students and parents walk to the school, according school principal Coleen Lewis. Photo by Alex Cookhouse.

Kindergarteners Gwyn Van Cott (left) and Miya Philpot at Center Street School in Oneonta, NY, work together on a class assignment in the classroom’s play area on April 29, 2012. Photograph by Devon Gonzalez.

Third grade student Robert Murray looks at a “Save Our School” sign in the cafeteria of Center Street School during a school open house on May 3, 2012. On May 15, a budget vote will determine the fate of the school. Photo by Michaela Shipman.

Two classes of fourth graders leave Center Street School on May 3, 2012, for a class field trip. The students walked around central Oneonta, learning about the different architecture of buildings in the neighborhood. As Center Street School awaits a May 15 budget vote that will determine its fate, daily life for the students continues as normal. Photo by Michelle O'Dell

Nature photo workshop

There is room for about 2 more people in my next Nature Photography workshop, this Sat. May 5 from 2 to 5 pm in Cooperstown. We'll play with ways to find the beauty all around us.

Details and sign-up here:
http://www.oneonta.edu/academics/conted/noncredit/coursedescriptions2012.asp