| Yoko Toda about her photos
taken in 1965 -
1966
One morning I read
an article about
the Vietnam War and saw the photo of a Buddhist monk immolating himself
by pouring oil over himself and setting fire to it as his protest
against the war.
The image
shocked me greatly and I could not stop thinking about the
self-sacrifice these people made for the sake of peace. In the midst of
the Vietnam War, in 1965, I decided to go there myself to document the
situation in the tradition of my mentors such as Capa and Bresson. When
I arrived, it was daytime and the city seemed quiet and beautiful
compared to Tokyo where the constant construction of roads and
buildings was taking place for coming the Tokyo Olympic.
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But I could not take any photographs of
political or radical nature. So I left
Saigon for Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat, a
place I had heard of before, to see with my own eyes. The attraction I
felt for the place was impressive and real that I started to take
pictures with my camera, even on a bicycle, every single corner of the
temples. I was totally mesmerized by the adventure and stayed until my
visa expired.
I went
back there the following year to continue my passion.Time went
by and I moved to Europe and from there to USA and I got involved
in painting as my discipline. But I never forgot about those precious
photographs, the witness of the peaceful as yet undestroyed people's
spirit hidden in my archive. |
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Finally, I
opened the file of these documented photographs to see them again with
the help of the new technology. To my joy, the Cambodia I loved so much
has returned to my vision. Going through these tremendous amount of
photographs all witnessing the peaceful moment of the days, I felt
convinced that they should be shared with more people, especially with
the people of the area of whom these treasures belong.
The beauty
and the truth of this sacred place prior to the nightmare of
destruction breathe their eternal light and shadow in these images
Yoko Toda / New York 2006 |
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Silence-Remained 2005-2011 |
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