Okinawa

Victoire Thierrée discovered the island of Okinawa through the work of the photographer Shomei Tomatsu (1930–2012) on her first visit to Japan in 2012. Tomatsu was the first photographer to document the US military presence in Okinawa, a project that culminated in the publication of Okinawa, Okinawa, Okinawa in 1969. During a trip in 2019, Thierrée explored this island, where thirty-two US military bases are still in operation, staffed by some 10,000 service members. She created a series of black-and-white photographs in 6 × 9 (vertical) format, paying particular attention to the immediate vicinity of each base, where nature seemed to be gaining the upper hand, as if offering resistance to this continuing occupation. This first series inspired her to broaden the scope of her explorations. In 2023, she travelled to the Smithsonian Institution Archives in Washington to carry out research on the botanist Egbert H. Walker (1899–1991), who had directed a large-scale project in the Ryukyu Islands after the war. Under a Servicemen’s Collecting Program, Walker engaged US Armed Forces personnel to collect natural specimens (plants, corals, minerals, etc.) near where they were stationed. In 1951, he thus supervised the collection of more than 8,000 plant specimens from areas directly affected by the tragic and violent events that took place during the Battle of Okinawa, in 1945.