Tokyo ( CNN ) -- Since last year 's Tohoku earthquake , the scenes of devastation and Daiichi nuclear disaster immediately come to mind when people hear `` Fukushima . '' Few see the beauty of Fukushima 's landscape , both before the quake and how it now remains.Two photographers , Frances Tong and Katsumi Omori , respectively from Hong Kong and from Japan , are determined to offer artistic alternative . `` In spring , the mist filled up each and every space in the air . In autumn , the falling leaves colored the forest and the sweet scent of maple leaves merged with every breath that I drew in ... and that 's the image of Fukushima that I can recall , '' said Tong , an amateur Hong Kong photographer who went to Fukushima prefecture several times before the earthquake . `` Fukushima after the quake is no longer the Fukushima that I once visited , '' said Tong . `` Despite the sad side of Fukushima , I want to show its peaceful and hopeful side as well . The scenes of Fukushima that I 've seen on television are so dark and devastated . '' Tong founded a charity organization called `` Friends of Fukushima , '' which set up three photo exhibitions in Hong Kong showing 30 photographs of Fukushima 's mountains and lakes for charity . Earlier this year , $ 12,000 was raised and donated to Citizens Nuclear Information Centre , an anti-nuclear organization in Japan , to help the Fukushima nuclear plant workers . Tong , a 36-year-old business development manager , discovered Fukushima prefecture 's scenery during a business trip in 2007 . Since then , Tong went to Fukushima every year to capture the scenery on film . Tong says she feels a bond with the prefecture 's environment , including one unforgettable sunrise . `` I woke up at 3:30 in the morning . I waited there for hours with my tripod . I witnessed the rising sun gradually lightening up the sky , from dark to dawn to morning . I felt so light and relaxed , as if I was merged with nature , '' said Tong . Rather than looking back in the past , Katsumi Omori chose to show the existing beauty of Fukushima . Right after the quake , Omori , who lives in the Tokyo suburb of Urayasu , felt the need to go to the affected areas last April . `` The world has changed . It was n't what it was before , '' the 48-year-old said . `` I had to see it for myself . '' Without any precise idea of what would be seen in the area , he decided to head to Fukushima to take pictures of `` sakura '' . These Japanese cherry blossoms are the main theme of his ongoing artistic project since 2001 , consisting largely of photos taken in Tokyo and his neighborhood . `` Sakura is planted by people . I wanted to see how those people are living and their conditions , '' he said . His sakura photo series was presented to the British public in `` Everything Happens for the First Time '' , his solo exhibition held in London , August 2011 . `` People who were expecting to see the massive devastation caused by the tsunami and the earthquake might have been disappointed , '' he said . `` Those who saw my work as an artistic expression of my feelings told me that they really like my exhibition . '' Omori wanted to show the `` unseen '' which has not been exposed by the media . He believed that , as a photographer , his job is to capture things out of the ordinary rather than what is easily seen . Some people told him they felt natsukashi , or `` nostalgia '' in Japanese , when looking at his pictures . Being a photographer for 20 years , he observed that artists ' attitude has somewhat changed after this disaster . `` People seem to realize that things do break and things that humans made get washed away , '' he said . `` The way artists pay tribute has changed . Their works are sometimes offered to charity organizations and remember what happened . '' Haruka Nuga contributed to this story .
To most people , scenes of Fukushima evoke death and destruction . Two photographers are determined to offer artistic alternative .