Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Ansel Adams at Manzanar...

Manzanar was one of the notorious internment camps where over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in WWII.  Ansel Adams was already a famous photographer at the time.  I just ran across a fact previously unknown to me: that Adams was unhappy about the internment, and asked permission to photograph the Manzanar camp.  You can see a collection of these photographs (one of which is at right) on this site.

Looking at these photos, I don't get the sense that Adams was appalled by what he found.  In fact, I'd say the collection overall conveys quite a positive, hopeful sense of people making the best of a bad situation.  I've not been able to find anything in writing from Adams, describing how he felt about what he observed at Manzanar.  If you know of any such writing, please let me know...

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