Oomen-Yamasaki collaboration features “Innocents in Peril”

In this November 2005 photo by Taro Yamasaki of a fourth-grade science class, a student successfully completes an experiment to the delight of his classmates in the Osama El Naggar School in Khan Yunus, Gaza. At this time, boys and girls attended Osama El Naggar School but classes were segregated by sex. After Hamas took power in 2007, boys and girls attended separate schools.

From staff reports

In these times, when cuts to programs have reduced support for the arts and humanities throughout the country, many artists and art appreciators wonder if art can continue to offer the consciousness raising experiences that have enriched our lives for so long. Artists might ask, why is it important to keep doing our creative work? To go forward, artists must be tenacious enough to believe that in the end, it matters a lot. And sometimes, it’s important to orient that work toward specific issues that witness or resist.

“If art heightens our awareness or makes us more conscious of the victims of wrongdoing, then maybe we move the needle,” as writer Anne-Marie Oomen said, “one iota of one iota.” In this regard, the artistic collaboration between award-winning photographer Taro Yamasaki and writer Anne-Marie Oomen—both Leelanau County residents—strives to do just that.

Their exhibit, titled Innocents in Peril, is now displayed in the Erie room at the State Library of Michigan in Lansing. The exhibit consists of 22 of Yamasaki’s award-winning photographs and oral histories paired with 19 of Oomen’s poems, inspired by the photographs. The exhibit features Yamasaki’s photographs of children surviving conditions of war or living under oppressive regimes.

“We did not shy from their suffering, but tried to create a narrative arc through the series that ends on a resilient note,” Oomen said. The photographs and poems depict children, innocents from all over the world, from kids in refugee camps to orphans in Romania, from girls who have been sex-trafficked to mine victims in Nicaragua. Of his work, Yamaskai said, “When I photograph people my hope is to create an emotional and intellectual connection between the subject and the viewer.”

The exhibit which is an excerpt from a longer manuscript for which Oomen and Yamasaki are actively seeking a publisher, opened on April 26 at the State Library’s Night of Notables, where 20 books by or about Michigan are honored for recognition. Yamasaki said, “It’s an honor to be part of the exhibit at the State Library of Michigan.” Yamasaki and Oomen will make a more formal presentation to the program on May 22 at the State Library in Lansing, and the exhibit will remain open through July of this summer. They encourage people who have an opportunity to be in Lansing to visit the exhibit.

Yamasaki’s photographs of innocents ravaged by war, disease, natural disasters, and the cruelty of tyrants, will also be featured on May 13 at the Dennos Museum’s Milliken Auditorium at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City. The free event, which commemorates achievements by Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, is titled “Speaking truth to power,” and runs from 5-8 pm. Yamasaki will be joined on stage by Sakuro Takano, CEO of Rotary Charities of Traverse City. Click here for more information about the May 13 event at Milliken Auditorium.

PowerPoint shows outside the exhibit rooms at both the State Library of Michigan and Milliken Auditorium will feature 500 photos of “Innocents in Peril” including gorillas in Rwanda and whales in Point Barrow, Alaska.

“They are both in peril and are both innocent beings,” said Yamasaki. “The Dennos’ PowerPoint will also feature the Manzanas Pilgrimage with Arab Americans and Japanese Americans remembering and celebrating together—continuous loops which no one will see in entirety, not even close.”