Restricted Residence examines the relocation of Japanese citizens to Namie and Iitate, two towns exposed to extreme radioactivity following the catastrophic leak at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Despite inconclusive scientific consensus of the long-term effects of radiation in the area, in 2017 the Japanese government began to reduce the exclusion zones and heavily financially incentivise residents to return to what were formerly bustling towns, with nearly 27,000 living and working there. Now, the area is eerily empty, with just a few hundred people brave enough to return. With the reactor still unrepaired and uninhabitable radiation hotspots scattered across the landscape, some believe these areas will not be safe for 50 years or longer.
Restricted Residence employs thermographic technology often used in industrial surveying and medicine, to render the everyday landscapes of Namie and Iitate abstract and surreal. It attempts to visualise the potential hidden stresses on those living in an altered environment, and examine Radiophobia : the fear of ionizing radiation and its long-term psychological impact. The images also show human resilience, and raises questions about the wider ramifications of how people live with manmade environmental disasters. Giles Price Website, retrieved January 16, 2020.