Lost & Found: Family Photos Swept by 3.11 East Japan Tsunami

At first glance, you might think they were album covers for some hipster-approved indie band. But the photographs coating the walls of this obscure gallery in Nishi-Azabu are far more tragic, not to mention more profound, in origin. These shots of family outings and landscapes, some of them worn and chemically scarred to the point of being unrecognisable, were recovered by volunteers assisting in the clean-up operation at Yamamoto-cho, Miyagi Prefecture, one of the towns worst hit by the March 11 tsunami. They're being displayed by pro photographer Munemasa Takahashi – who also participated in the volunteer effort – in an effort to invoke the 'silent presence of the survivors and of those who lost their lives [in] the tsunami.' And that's worth a few minutes of anyone's time, if you ask us.