I've now gone three times to the Art Institute's exhibition entitled, "Island Life," depicting the fascination of Japan's southern islands by Japanese photographer, Shomei Tomatsu. With a title like that, and a write-up of the photographer's fascination with postwar Japan, I wondered how it might depict the childhood I remembered there.
This image captures much of one particular painting of Okinawa blue: the ocean filled with rich coral reef life and the sky that went on endlessly. In the glass reflection, you see the wall of black and white photographs that show people during post-war Japan, the years of the American military occupation of Okinawa.
