Rob Gilhooly’s Suicide Forest

Overview

The least kid-friendly exhibition at the Auckland Festival of Photography is Rob Gilhooly's Suicide Forest exhibition. The story behind the images are scary and R18 and very Blair Witch Project. The forest, near Mount Fuju in Japan, earned its name as a result of the thousands of self-inflicted deaths that have occurred within its realms. Why in the middle of a forest? The most common theories include that fact that the forest is always silent, thanks to the wind-blocking density of the trees and the absence of wildlife. Another rumour is that Seicho Matsumoto's 1960 novel Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees) inspired the suicide trend in the forest. Lastly the forest is said to now to be haunted by all those souls lost within the trees.

And so, Tokyo-based, award-winning British photographer Rob Gilhooly decided to explore this culture-rich area. The images in his exhibition are both haunting and contemplative. They are not photos of the demons or ghosts within the forest, but may be even more horrifying to see. They instead depict evidence left behind from the thousands of suicides in the depths of the forest. The exhibition evokes the memory of those who have died through their former belongings. They also approach the brutality of suicide, a controversial topic, seeing as it is considered an honourable way to die in Japan.

Leave the kids at home.