Elusive Truth: Four Photographers at Manzanar

Revised Edition. In 1942 the United States government declared 110,000 American Japanese residents of the United States a threat to national security and incarcerated them in eleven relocation camps around the country. One such camp, Manzanar, was located near Lone Pine in the Owens River Valley on the East side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Four photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Clem Albers and Toyo Miyatake photographed Manzanar and its residents at various times throughout its three year existence. Their photographs tell the story of Manzanar from four different perspectives. Taken together, they offer a glimpse of the elusive truth of the relocation camps a cautionary and poignant tale of pain, injustice, and the triumph of the human spirit. In 1942 110,000 American Japanese were incarcerated in relocation camps. One camp, Manzanar, was photographed by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, etc. These photographs present a tale of pain, injustice, and the triumph of the human spirit.