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Depp's dark character brings disaster to light
Actor Johnny Depp plays a hard-drinking photographer whose powerful images drew attention to the devastating effects of mercury poisoning on a Japanese fishing town
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Actor Johnny Depp as photographer W. Eugene Smith and Japanese actress Minami (both above), who plays his interpreter and romantic partner, in Minamata.
PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION
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Even if you have not heard of the Minamata disaster, which started in the 1950s, it is likely you will have seen the photograph that summed up its horror.
First published in 1972 and now ranked among the most powerful images of the 20th century, the image of Tomoko Uemura floating in a bath - her nude, deformed body cradled tenderly by her mother Ryoko - was taken by American photographer W. Eugene Smith.
