Description
This photograph is part of a larger collection given by photographer Ansel Adams to the Library of Congress. The 200 images he captured came from the Manzanar Relocation Camp in California. When presenting these images to the Library, Adams wrote in a letter, "The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment....All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use."
Source-Dependent Questions
- What can you infer was Ansel Adams' intent in taking this photo?
- Consider the sign. How was this a contradiction given the circumstances of internment? How does this show a "vital" community?
Citation Information
Adams, Ansel, "Roy Takeno (Editor) and group reading Manzanar paper [i.e. Los Angeles Times] in front of office, Yuichi Hirata, Nabuo Samamura, Manzanar Relocation Center, California," 1943. Courtesy of Library of Congress