Aftermath of a Typhoon, Nagoya
Shomei Tomatsu
Japanese, 1930–2012
1959
A gelatin silver print photograph that compresses the aftermath of a typhoon into a cropped, tactile study of a mud‑streaked worker and the tool of recovery.
The close, fragmentary framing hits first—the white, paint‑spattered shorts set against dark, caked mud and a clenched hand on a handle—so tactile and immediate that the scene reads like a moment of strenuous labor rather than a landscape.
Made in 1959, this image reveals Shomei Tomatsu’s postwar turn toward intimate, material details—using fragments of bodies and tools to document social disruption and reshape documentary photography away from broad spectacle toward human, bodily experience.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
19 15/16 × 12 15/16" (50.6 × 33 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
398.1977
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
