Many have seen or heard about Ansel Adams photographs of the imprisonment of Japanese Americans in incarceration camps.
Fewer know the backstory.
That story is told by the Spokesman Review based in Spokane where an exhibition of Adam’s photos opened this weekend at the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University.
“There are a number of images where landscape, I would say, is still the subject matter,” said Paul Manoguerra, the Museum’s curator and director. “There’s plenty of portraits, there’s plenty of images of everyday life, but you can still see Adams’ interest in landscapes in the images of the exhibition.”
A book of the photographs, Born Free & Equal, published in 1944, drew protest. Some demonstrators even burned the book.
Adams received criticism on both sides of the debate.
“His images, some people felt, were too benign. And others felt he was of course making too strong of a protest,” he said.
You can learn more about the story behind these photographs in the Spokesman Review.