File:Osamu James Nakagawa Okinawa -017, Banta series 2008.jpg

Photograph by Osamu James Nakagawa, Okinawa #017 ("Banta" series, 20" x 60", 2008). The image illustrates a mid-career stage and longstanding body of work in Osamu James Nakagawa's career from the later 2000s:his multiple series focused on the enduring of the Japanese occupation of Okinawa near the end of World War II. This image is from the "Banta" (cliff) series, which depicts towering natural structures that became known as "Suicide Cliffs" after thousands of locals dove to their deaths during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Nakagawa photographed consecutive parts of each subject with a high-resolution camera, then digitally stitched them to create large seamless vertical images that reference traditional kakemono landscape scroll paintings. Critics describe the images as experiential and physical in their ability to evoke a absence, silence, beauty and a sense of the weight of a tragic history. This work and similar works have been publicly exhibited in prominent venues, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications, and acquired by museums.

Artist Osamu James Nakagawa. Copyright held by the artist.

Osamu James Nakagawa

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a mid-career stage and longstanding body of work in Osamu James Nakagawa's career from the later 2000s, when he produced a several series bodies of work focused on that explored the enduring legacy of the Japanese occupation of Okinawa near the end of World War II: the "Remains," "Banta," "Gama" and "Fences" series. The "Banta" (cliff) and "Gama" (cave) series focus on landscape as entry point and witness to history and suffering. Both series make use of digital technology and have been noted for a hyperreal quality that combines razor-sharp focus and detail (of visceral crags, craters and planes) impossible to capture in a single frame and a dizzying (the "Banta" works) quality or disorienting resulting from tilted perspectives and tight cropping. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to visualize this key, longstanding and ongoing body of work in his career, which brought widespread recognition through exhibitions in major venues, coverage by major critics in publications and books, and museum acquisitions. Nakagawa's work of this type and this work in particular is discussed in the article and by prominent critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Osamu James Nakagawa, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.