A visual story about the beautiful island of Teshima and the legal victory of the dumping of illegal waste.

The story is about a small island located in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, called Teshima.

During the 1970s and 80s, the rural island of Teshima become the location for illegal dumping of industrial waste. The beautiful sandy beaches were filled with rubbish, which was either buried under the sand or burnt, causing toxic black smoke. The islanders undertook a long legal battle to prevent the continuous illegal discarding of waste products.

In 2000 after the legal battle was won, the clean-up started. It took seventeen years to remove 918,000 tons of industrial waste.

“Almost Transparent Island” combines archival and contemporary photographs creating a collage of what was and what is now to make a visual testament to the Teshima scandal.

*Fully handmade artist edition of 44 copies/ signed and editioned, each edition comes with the unique transparent print

Order from here: reminders-project.org/rps/almosttransparentisland_saleen/

Project detail: www.makihayashida.com/almost-transparent-island

Images  ©  Maki Hayashida. All rights reserved.