Gila River, Canal Camp, Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Arizona, March 25, 1995 / GRC-18-18-28 (from the series Japanese-American Concentration Camps)
Artist
Patrick Nagatani
(American, 1945 - 2017)
DateMarch 25, 1995
Mediumchromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 10 × 12 in. (25.4 × 30.5 cm)
Support: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Support: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Patrick Nagatani, 2017
Object number2017.12.63
DescriptionHigh desert landscape with scrub bushes in the foreground and at center. At center in front of shrubs appears to be a square concrete pad. The middle and backgrounds feature vegetation. There is a dirt pathway at right leading from foreground to the concrete slabs. Mountaintops are faintly visible on the horizon. Blue sky which is almost cloudless dominates the upper half of the image.eMuseum Notes
Typically known for his photographic narratives and colorful
constructed imagery, Patrick Nagatani shifts to a more documentary style in his
series “Japanese-American Concentration Camps.” In the early 1990s, the artist
traveled to and photographed the sites of ten inland camps created by the U.S.
government during World War II to forcibly detain citizens of Japanese descent.
Families across the nation were required to leave their homes, Businesses,
land, and property to live in these isolated camps under challenging
conditions. Among them were Nagatani’s parents, who were both incarcerated as
young adults, his mother at Manzanar and his father at Jerome; his maternal
grandfather was separated from his family and held at the Justice Department
Internment Camp in Santa Fe. Nagatani’s parents later met married in Chicago
and, like many prisoners of war, did not discuss their incarceration with their
children. The artist and his siblings grew into adulthood knowing very little
of their parents’ experiences. This photographic series was his way to explore
and claim that family history.
On View
Not on view
