This September, Pictura presents Trace, a new photographic series by longtime Bloomington treasure Osamu James Nakagawa, distinguished Professor of Photography at Indiana University. The project connects Nakagawa’s present day experience as a Japanese-American with past generations. In 2022, he began a 25,000 mile pilgrimage from Bloomington to visit the sites of Japanese-American incarceration camps. Trace combines photographs taken at these sites with photograms of found objects and rubbings of the memorials. 

Using diptychs, Nakagawa pairs the past and the present, flattening the boundaries between them. Trace seeks to reveal what can’t be seen anymore, things that happened eighty years ago and have been quietly buried. Through a direct and immersive process, using actual objects and surfaces from the sites, Nakagawa unearths this history of forced incarceration.

Trace opens at Pictura Gallery on Friday September 4th 5-8pm, and will be on view until October 30th.