Thoughts on Dancing Cat Fever Photo Essay
In 1908, a modest chemical company called the Chisso Corporation opened in the fishing town Minamata, located on the western coast of the southernmost island in the Japanese archipelago. It was also at this time that the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese war was felt, and the waves of modernity began to crash into the Japanese economy, submerging traditional agricultural practices, and consequently giving rise to spurring growths in sectors such as mining and manufacturing.
By 1932, the Chisso Minamata factory shifted away from the production of fertilizers, to the production and international distribution of Acetaldehyde, acetic acid, vinyl chloride and octanol. In a heartbeat, the small fishing town, enveloped by rugged shorelines and abundant in marine life, was radically transformed into a bustling industrial hub, with the local economy shifting from the noticably desolate fishing industry, thus resulting in Minamata being dubbed Chisso's "Castle Town".
The image below is one of the most iconic images of that time period, and openly articulates to the viewer the effects of industrialization, in particular the Dancing Cat Fever(commonly referred to as Minamata disease, caused by severe Mercury poisoning). First published in LIFE magazine in 1972, Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath was taken by W. Eugene Smith, a photojournalist who is widely considered the master of the photo essay,and can be found in his 1971 picture essay Minamata vs. the Chisso Corporation. It depicts Ryoko Uemura holding her severely deformed daughter, Tomoko, in an attempt to bathe her. This image conveys a beautiful, yet disturbing, impression of life for families suffering from Minamata disease.
It should be noted that this photograph was staged, it was not taken "in the moment", rather it was poised and carefully directed by Smith, who, though a master of the photo essay, does not capture "real-time" events, instead he carefully manufactures them. To many photojournalists this forbidden, and publications like TIME Magazine and the New York Times pride themselves on not accepting, or publishing, images that are composed in this way. Despite this photojournalistic ideology, Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath was such a powerful image that it led to the implementation of environmental reforms, along with compensation issued to the 2,500 people that were affected by the debilitating disease. Smith, himself, also suffered for this essay, and was attacked, leading to permanent injuries, by Chisso employees while documenting the effects of Minamata disease.
This raises important questions about what photojournalism is, and how visual story telling can accurately depict what is happening in the world around us, without jeopardizing journalistic integrity. Eugene Smith's iconic image, is, in fact, similar to a journalist finding a credible source and making up quotes that he/she said, with the intention of exposing the hard truth and ultimately raising awareness, or finding justice. The authenticity, regardless of the good intention, is absent, and without this authenticity, biased information is produced.
I would like to mention that, at the time it was published, it was not known that Smith had manufactured this image, or any of his other iconic images, and it has since been removed from his essay. Smith's work, regardless of this, is impressive, and has contributed greatly to many social changes of this time period.