Two Views of Manzanar: An Exhibition of Photographs By Ansel Adams / Toyo Miyatake
Category: Books
Two Views of Manzanar: An Exhibition of Photographs By Ansel Adams / Toyo Miyatake Details
Catalog of an exhibition held at Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, Nov. 21, 1978 to Jan. 14, 1979. 55 pages : chiefly illustrations ; 22 x 28 cm. In very good condition. [From Introduction] Photographs are the most ubiquitous record of twentieth century history. Even the most minor events are photographed and thereby fixed in the course of history by the very act of their being recorded. It is not uncommon, therefore, to find ten or a hundred photographs by as many photographers, each attempting to present a factual account of the same event. Predictably, there are as many different accounts of an historic episode as there are photographers claiming to have witnessed the facts. Photography, we have learned, misrepresents as often as it purports to deliver the unexpurgated "truth" about things. Understanding that "the camera nearly always lies" one can begin to enjoy the ambiguity of photography and its power to interpret a photographer's vision. This exhibition offers an unusually rich and informative comparison between the work/philosophy, and lives of two photographers. Ansel Adams, perhaps America's most wellknown photographer, exhibits with Toyo Miyatake, important if not as widely known, and especially significant in the context of this exhibition. Primarily based in the Japanese community of Los Angeles/ Miyatake has maintained a successful photography studio for half a century with the help of his family, and eldest son Archie, in particular. Publicly recognized as a fine artist as early as the 1920/s, Miyatake has been celebrated for his portraits, his photographs of the dance, and heretofore less significantly, for his pictures of Manzanar, the World War II Internment camp for Japanese Americans in the Owens Valley, California. Read more
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